Phillies Notes: Manuel to miss game

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel will not manage Saturday's game against Atlanta in order to attend to a personal matter, a team official said Friday. It is just the second time Manuel, who is in his sixth season as manager, will miss a regular-season Phillies game.

Bench coach Pete Mackanin will manage the team in Manuel's absence.

Manuel, 66, said the personal matter is not related to his own health. Since spring training began, Manuel has constantly said he has more energy after losing nearly 50 pounds in the last year.

"I'm OK," Manuel said before Friday's game.

Manuel said he will rejoin the team Sunday morning.

Manuel was suspended for one game in 2006 for aggressively arguing with an umpire. He also missed two games during spring training in 2009 for a medical examination.

Mackanin has been an interim manager twice in his coaching career, with the 2005 Pirates and 2007 Reds. He is 53-53 as a manager.

After reinjuring his left knee, shortstop Juan Castro underwent an MRI before Friday's game to make sure the injury is not serious. The results revealed a mild knee strain. He said he is day-to-day.

On Friday, Castro did not play for the second consecutive game.

The injury is similar to the one Castro suffered two weeks ago in Arizona. He said he is experiencing some pain in the inside part of his left knee.

"It's a little bit sore," Castro said. "It's a little bit discomfort when I try to do some stuff running-wise."

Wilson Valdez started at shortstop again Friday night and Manuel said he does not expect Castro's injury to be a long-term issue.

"I'd say, probably, we're looking at a couple days," Manuel said. "He's going to be OK. Valdez can play a couple days."

Contrary to a report in Friday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals did not file a formal appeal of a scoring decision in Thursday's Cardinals-Phillies game. But a representative of the commissioner's office contacted Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. to discuss the protocol for dealing with official scorers.

In the second inning of Thursday's game against St. Louis, David Freese hit a fly ball to right that Jayson Werth lost in the sun. Originally, the play was ruled a triple for Freese, who later scored in the inning.

During the game, Amaro went into the press box to discuss the scoring of the play with official scorer, Jay Dunn. After the game, Werth called up to the press box to tell Dunn the ball had gone off his glove, and it should be an error.

The official ruling was changed to an error shortly after the game, dropping Roy Halladay's ERA from 1.47 to 1.45.

Phyllis Mehrige, MLB senior vice president of club relations, said St. Louis media relations director Brian Bartow called her to express his disappointment in the ruling and that he wasn't informed of the change following the game.

Bartow called the Phillies' actions in pressuring the official scorer to make a change "unprofessional," according to the Post-Dispatch. Club officials - including front-office personnel and players - are supposed to engage an official scorer in discussion through their respective public relations officials.

Mehrige said she called Amaro and left a message with the GM Friday to remind him of the rules.

"I'm not even sure Ruben knows what the policy is," Mehrige said. "I'll take the opportunity to explain it to him."

Werth would not discuss the phone call he made to Dunn after the game.

"It was an error," Werth said. "It was a catchable ball. I should have had it."

Halladay is the first Phillies pitcher to win at least six of his first seven games since Dutch Leonard did it in 1947, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. . . . The Phillies began wearing circular black No. 36 patches on their uniform sleeves to honor Robin Roberts, who died Thursday.