ST. LOUIS -- Stephen Piscotty , who endured a painful trip around the bases in Tuesday's loss, passed Major League Baseball's concussion protocol on Wednesday morning and received clearance to return to the field.

The news was a relief to the Cardinals, who had watched their right fielder be hit on both elbows and his helmet all while circling the bases in the fifth inning. The impact from Javier Baez 's throw off Piscotty's helmet left him with a head contusion near his cheekbone.

A day later, however, there was no evidence of the contact.

"I definitely didn't black out, but I was stunned and didn't realize what happened," Piscotty said. "After a few seconds, I just kind of figured I got hit in the face or something. But thankfully that helmet flap was there and took most of the force of it."

Piscotty noted that, a day later, he was actually most sore around his right elbow, which is where he was hit by Jacob Arrieta 's pitch to start the unusual sequence of events. Piscotty also took a throw off his left elbow guard while advancing to second base on a ball in the dirt.

"I haven't seen that before, and to actually live it was pretty crazy," Piscotty said of being hit three times in one inning. "I'm glad I'm OK. It was hard to believe that it happened in one trip around the bases. After it was over and what not, it's kind of funny to look back on since I'm OK. But yeah, it's something I'm not going to forget."

Even though Piscotty checked out fine on Wednesday, the Cardinals were going to hold him out of the lineup for at least a day. That became inconsequential when the threat of severe weather prompted a postponement of the series finale. Manager Mike Matheny would not speculate whether the extra day off would change the team's lineup plans for Thursday.

"We'll take today to take it easy and see how it feels," Matheny said. "It's good to get the other guys involved, too."

Jenifer Langosch has covered the Cardinals for MLB.com since 2012, and previously covered the Pirates from 2007-11. Follow her on Twitter, like her Facebook page and listen to her podcast.