CLEVELAND -- After getting hit in the head by a fastball from Rockies starter German Marquez on Sunday, Kristopher Bryant passed all concussion tests and took indoor batting practice Tuesday. But Bryant was not in the Cubs' starting lineup for the series opener against the Indians at Progressive Field.
"He wanted to see the doctor and do all the normal stuff," manager Joe Maddon said. "I think he's fine. He just has to work through some things."
Maddon was not ruling out the possibility of Bryant being available off the bench for Tuesday's tilt, which was threatened by rain. Thomas La Stella got the start at third base. Addison Russell was in the starting lineup at shortstop despite a brief hospitalization in Colorado following an allergic reaction to the Cubs' postgame meal Sunday.
Bryant's visit with a doctor was, in Maddon's words, about "validation."
"Getting hit in the head is kind of a traumatic experience, especially at 96 [mph]," Maddon said. "That's probably the first time that's happened to him."
After being struck by Marquez's 1-2 pitch in the brim of his helmet, Bryant walked to the dugout. He stayed on his feet while talking to Maddon and team trainers before he was helped off the field. He had a small laceration above his left eye from his sunglasses.
Bryant is hitting .319/.467/.536 (22-for-69) with two homers, seven doubles and 11 RBIs through 19 games this season, his fourth in the big leagues.
Russell has shellfish scare
Because of a shellfish allergy, Russell is ordinarily diligent about what he eats. But what he thought was lemon chicken in the postgame meal in Denver on Sunday turned out to be shrimp, and Russell wound up carted out of the clubhouse on a gurney and transported to a nearby hospital.
"I had an IV put in," Russell said. "After a couple hours, everything was fine."
Russell said he hadn't had an allergic episode since he was much younger.
"Nowadays, I'm pretty proactive when going to places that have sushi and stuff," Russell said. "Normally it doesn't happen like this, but it was just a mislabel. I'm glad everything is feeling normal, my vitals are normal and it's back to the same routine."
The room where it happened
The carpet was new, and so was the speaker system. The Cubs had done a number on the visiting clubhouse at Progressive Field in their wild celebration of a wild Game 7 in 2016, so the clubhouse staff had made some updates since the Cubs last set foot in the facility.
"That was probably necessary," Maddon said with a smile.
But despite those small tweaks, the clubhouse looked familiar enough to evoke some very pleasant memories for the remaining members of the 2016 Cubs.
"Just walking into this stadium from the bus into the clubhouse, you just get a sense of nostalgia," Russell said. "The weight room, the food room, all that stuff, I just remember walking around here with that world champions shirt. Everything's just fitting like a puzzle piece right now, and it's pretty awesome to be a part of."

When Maddon walked by the visitors' weight room where Jason Heyward gave his famous rain delay pump-up speech prior to the 10th inning of Game 7, he noted to recent acquisition Yu Darvish, "That's a pretty important room right there."
And of course it was fitting that when the Cubs returned, the rain arrived to Cleveland, just as it had on Nov. 2, 2016.
"Picking up where we left off here," Maddon joked.