DaytonDailyNews.com

MIAMI — If Florida relief pitcher Armando Benitez was throwing at Cincinnati's Ryan Freel on Friday, Reds manager Pete Mackanin is not stepping into the middle of it.

On Thursday, Freel hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning off Benitez for a 7-5 Reds victory. On Friday, with the Marlins leading 7-2 in the eighth, Benitez hit Freel on the left wrist.

After the game, Freel was hot about it as he sat with an ice wrap on his wrist.

"That was an interesting scenario," said Mackanin. "I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to talk about it. I don't know. You can't make me. Can you?

"In this business, you always have situations come up that you are not sure of," he added. "Some guys think the worst, some guys don't. Years ago, throwing inside and knocking a guy down was part of the game. Now, you get the stare and the warnings, and you don't know how to act. 'Did he throw at me? Yes, he did. No, he didn't.' Back-and-forth."

Mackanin remembers when he feared getting hit by Bob Gibson, a mean guy who would rather hit a batter than walk him — and did it often.

"I got my first National League hit off Gibson," he said. "Before I got it, a little ground-ball single, I hit a foul-ball home run. Then I was scared. I knew Gibson's reputation, and I wondered, 'Oh, oh, is he going to hit me now?' "

No guarantees

Closer-in-waiting Eddie Guardado keeps working toward a return to competition, but Mackanin is not paying attention and isn't interested until the medical staff says Guardado can pitch. And even when he comes back, it isn't likely Guardado automatically claims the closer's role away from David Weathers.

"Weathers has been good (19 saves in 23 chances) for a guy not considered a closer," said Mackanin. "He has been a pretty special pitcher."

Mackanin doesn't watch Guardado's side sessions and batting-practice sessions "because it is like watching pitchers throw on the side early in spring training. You see them (not facing a hitter) and you say, 'Wow, what great stuff.' What's the point?

"Sure I'm anxious to see him come back because he is a competitor, but we'd work him back into games gradually," Mackanin said.

Expecting hits

In his previous start before Saturday, Monday in Atlanta, Reds pitcher Bobby Livingston not only won the game, he had four hits.

So before Saturday's game, Mackanin said, "Not only am I counting on him to pitch well, I'm counting on him for at least two hits."

Then Mackanin remembered that pitching coach Dick Pole said he had five hits in his first game, then didn't have another one.

"That's right," said Pole. "My first game in the Venezuelan Winter League, I went 5-for-5 for Maracaibo, then didn't get a hit the rest of the year. I was hell in that first game, then they started throwing me crooked stuff."

As for Livingston, he had a two-out single in the seventh inning Saturday night.

Last of the Reds

Aaron Boone is on Florida's disabled list with a sore left knee, but he and Reds outfielder Adam Dunn had lunch together Thursday. Dunn told Boone he expects to be traded before the July 31 deadline.

"If Dunn and (Ken) Griffey get traded, well, those are the last links I have to the Reds," said Boone, traded by the Reds in 2003. "I just keep watching and I have to think that one of these years they (the Reds) are going to get it right."

Quote of the day

Upon hearing about Florida pitcher Scott Olsen fleeing from the police at 3 a.m. after beating the Reds on Friday night, Ken Griffey Jr. said kiddingly, "I'm going to start running from the police, and I have the cars to do it. But they'd catch me ... because they wouldn't chase me, they'd just go to my house and wait."