SAN FRANCISCO – Logan Webb struck out vaunted slugger Aaron Judge three times through just four innings of Wednesday night’s season opener.

A consolation prize, perhaps?

“I could care less. I did a bad job today,” Webb said after yielding all seven runs (six earned) in the Giants’ 7-0 loss to the New York Yankees.

This was Webb’s fifth straight season-opener start, and like each other, a win eluded him.

New manager Tony Vitello pulled him after five innings — “He just told me I was done,” Webb said – while counterpart Max Fried and the Yankees allowed no runs.

Webb expressed no pleasure in repeatedly whiffing Judge, his former Team USA teammate, the reigning American League batting champ, a three-time A.L. MVP and, of course, a Linden native who grew up rooting for the Giants and considered leaving the Yankees for them in December 2022.

Webb’s 1,000th career strikeout, however, came when Judge foul-tipped an 86-mph changeup to strand two runners in the fourth inning. Only 13 other pitchers in team history have reached that milestone, with Madison Bumgarner being the most recent.

Judge, two innings later, recorded his fourth strikeout when reliever Caleb Kilian caught him looking at a 97-mph fastball. Judge avoided a fifth strikeout with a first-pitch groundout to Matt Chapman to open the ninth inning.

Webb’s season opened with strikeouts of Trent Grisham (94-mph fastball) and Judge (92.6-mph, belt-high, check-swing sinker) in a 1-2-3 first inning.

After a first-pitch groundout to start the second inning, the Yankees “ambushed” Webb, in his words, with five runs on five hits, the final blow being an RBI triple by Grisham to the right-center alley.

“The first inning was great. The second inning, I get a guy to ground out on the first pitch,” Webb said. “Then all hell broke loose. That’s on me.”

Vitello described his ace’s debut as “quirky” and one that came with a “heavy amount of stress” thanks to the Yankees’ aggressive bats. Still, Webb could make an early return to pitch the Giants’ fifth game next Tuesday in San Diego, thanks to them being idle Thursday and Sunday, Vitello said.

“He’s a groundball pitcher and a couple of balls got elevated,” Vitello said. “They stacked their hits together.”

The Yankees’ seven runs matched the most Webb has allowed in 91 home starts (July 10, 2024 vs. Toronto).

In terms of season openers, Webb also lasted just five innings last season (three earned runs) and did not get a decision in an eventual 6-4 win at Cincinnati. He also had no decisions in six-inning debuts in 2022 (one earned run in a 6-5 win against Miami) and in 2024 (two earned runs in a 6-4 loss at San Diego). When the Giants opened at the Yankees in 2023, Webb struck out 12, but he allowed two home runs in a 5-0 loss.

He refused to use Wednesday night’s distracting festivities as an excuse.

“It didn’t affect them,” Webb said of the Yankees. “It’s part of the job description. This is the fifth time I’ve done this, so I knew going in there’d be some extra stuff.”

One extra item did go his and the Giants’ way: a called strike against José Caballero held up when the Yankees’ shortstop summoned Major League Baseball’s first ABS-system, robot-umpire challenge. “It felt like a strike,” Webb noted.

Of Webb’s 86 pitches, 58 were strikes. Fried also maxed out at 86 pitches, and 53 were strikes.

“Pitching-wise, it just so happened their guy was better than our guy tonight,” Vitello said.