Knee pain still nagging Chicago Cubs' Bryant

MILWAUKEE - Kris Bryant did not start Sunday's series finale at Miller Park as the Chicago Cubs third baseman continues deal with right-knee pain that has dogged him since shortly before the all-star break.

Bryant's last home run came Aug. 21.

"It's still barking," manager Joe Maddon. "We talked after the game last night. It's bothering him. It's bothering him in all aspects of the game. We spoke last night. I just said, 'Listen, man, get your treatment. We're going like a day-by-day situation with it.' He did not feel very good after last night's game."

Maddon was asked if Brant's knee will need medical attention in the off-season.

"I don't know that," he said. "To this point, there's been nothing dramatically … it just might be some kind of an issue that rest might take care of. I don't know. I watch him swing at the plate, and he catches himself on his finish sometimes, trying to find his balance. There's definitely something that's causing kind of a weakness there.

"When he comes in and says he needs a day, then you know because he's played through a lot of different maladies. There was a swing last night, foul ball, that I saw him, that he had to catch himself on the finish. I thought there might be something. He wasn't really challenged on defense. He wasn't challenged on the bases. Primarily, I saw it in the batter's box last night."

Debut a long time coming:

Left-handed reliever Danny Hultzen made his big-league debut at age 29 Sunday during the Cubs' 8-5 loss to the Brewers.

Hultzen pitched the bottom of the seventh, hitting Christian Yelich with a pitch and giving up a single to Ben Gamel. But Hultzen settled down and struck out the next three batters.

Hultzen was the No. 2 overall draft pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2011, but injuries caused him to miss the 2014 and 2017 seasons. He signed a minor-league deal with the Cubs in 2018 and was selected Saturday from Class AAA Iowa.

"I was absolutely fired up, but once I threw that first pitch, it was baseball again," he said. "The buildup to it was unbelievable. It was an incredible feeling. But once I threw that first pitch, I was like, 'All right, this is baseball again. Let's do it.' "