SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two-time reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge went hitless on opening day for the first time in his big league career and had four strikeouts in a game for the first time since September 2024 in the New York Yankees' 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night.

Judge struck out swinging in the first against Logan Webb, took a called third strike in the second, struck out on a foul tip in the fourth, then took another called third strike in the sixth. He grounded out starting the night on an 0-for-5 night.

He had not struck out four times since a five-strikeout game against Pittsburgh on Sept. 28, 2024.

Judge was booed before the game and during each at-bat as he began his 11th big league season — someone the home fans at Oracle Park had so hoped would be wearing orange and black rather than pinstripes and playing in the Bronx. The California native had been pursued by the Giants during free agency in 2022 but he ultimately chose the Yankees’ $360 million, nine-year contract offer.

The 33-year-old grew up in the Central Valley town of Linden and starred at Fresno State. He batted a career-best and major league-high .331 last season with 53 home runs and 114 RBIs.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Aaron Judge went hitless on opening day for the first time and struck out four times for the first time since September 2024, but the New York Yankees still produced plenty of offense and beat San Francisco 7-0 Wednesday night in the debut of Giants manager Tony Vitello as the major league season began.

José Caballero drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in a five-run second and also lost the first challenge taken to Major League Baseball’s so-called robot umpire, unsuccessfully appealing a strike by Logan Webb in the fourth.

Max Fried (1-0) allowed two hits in 6 1/3 innings to became just the fifth Yankees pitcher since 1969 with at least 6 1/3 shutout innings on opening day, joining Catfish Hunter (1977), Ron Guidry (1980), Rick Rhoden (1988) and David Cone (1996). New York won an opener with a shutout on the road for the first time since 1967.

Webb (0-1) started the fourth inning with a 90.7 mph sinker on the upper, inner corner that was called a strike by Bill Miller, a major league umpire since 1997. Caballero tapped his helmet, and the 12 Hawk-Eye cameras of the Automated Ball-Strike System upheld Miller’s decision in a graphic shown on the Oracle Park scoreboard.

Caballero singled in the second and Ryan McMahon followed with a two-run single before Austin Wells' single prompted a mound visit for Webb. Trent Grisham hit a two-run triple and was checked by medical staff after a hard slide into third.

Judge was booed before the game and during each at-bat as he began his 11th big league season. The California native had been pursued by the Giants during free agency in 2022 but he ultimately chose the Yankees' $360 million, nine-year contract offer.

Webb, a 15-game winner last season making his fifth start on opening day, was tagged for six earned runs — seven in all — and nine hits over five innings.

The 47-year-old Vitello made the big jump from coaching the University of Tennessee.

Up next

The teams resum3 the series Friday afternoon, with RHP Cam Schlittler starting for New York opposite lefty Robbie Ray.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The New York Yankees' José Caballero lost the first challenge taken to Major League Baseball's so-called robot umpire, unsuccessfully appealing a strike by San Francisco Giants right-hander Logan Webb in Wednesday night's season opener.

Webb started the fourth inning with a 90.7 mph sinker on the upper, inner corner that was called a strike by Bill Miller, a major league umpire since 1997. Caballero tapped his helmet, and the 12 Hawk-Eye cameras of the Automated Ball-Strike System upheld Miller's decision in a graphic shown on the Oracle Park scoreboard.

New York was ahead 5-0 at the time. Caballero drove in the first run with an RBI double in a five-run second inning against Webb, who got his 1,000th career strikeout in the fourth.

The automated system had been tested in the minor leagues since 2019 and was used during major league spring training in 2025 and '26. Some managers have said they will still find ways to argue and get ejected.

Before Wednesday's game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone spoke in support of the new system and the importance of discussing decisions on challenges with his team ahead of time.

“I hope so,” Boone said when asked if he was excited. “We've had a lot of dialogue at it, it's something that we've poured a lot into, I've certainly. It's become one of the things I've kind of tried to lead the charge on a little bit. Another kind of end-of-spring meeting with all the position players and catchers at the end just kind of running through different ones that came up and give my feedback on it. I've been very direct with them during spring as far as after the fact if I thought one was really good or conversely if one was terrible."

Boone stressed this will be a learning process for everybody involved.

“I've tried to be real direct with them and why,” he said. "I feel like we're going to be good at it, that's the expectation. I'm sure we'll continue to evolve with it.”

New San Francisco skipper Tony Vitello, who came to the Giants from the University of Tennessee with no professional experience as a player or coach, said he had to remind himself earlier Wednesday that the robots might take over at times.

“'I've got to be honest with you, one thing I was looking at is who are the umpires tonight?” he said. “You get on google the first thing you see is there's going to be a robot umpire. And it was only for a millisecond but I kind of freaked out.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb