After the Yankees were shut down by Seattle’s Yusei Kikuchi, they credited the left-hander, who didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to tip your hat,’’ Cameron Maybin said of Kikuchi’s efforts after the Yankees were pummeled by the Mariners, 10-1, Wednesday night in the Bronx, ending their three-game winning streak.

Maybin wasn’t being ironic, but it would be easy to see if he was, since cameras showed a substance on the bill of Kikuchi’s hat, likely pine tar, that undoubtedly helped with his control on what turned into another chilly night at the Stadium.

But Maybin and the rest of his teammates were unmoved by any potential controversy.

“I could care less,’’ Maybin said. “Nobody noticed it. Nobody said anything. We’ve got a lot bigger worries trying to manufacture runs and get guys on base. I don’t think that had anything to do with it.”

Manager Aaron Boone said he became “aware of it very late. … We’ll take a look at it and see what we make of it.’’

Kikuchi walked DJ LeMahieu to lead off the bottom of the first, then retired the next 16 batters he faced before Mike Tauchman flared a double down the left-field line with one out in the sixth.

LeMahieu followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners, and Luke Voit’s sacrifice fly provided the Yankees with their only run of the game, extending their streak of not being shut out to 118 games.

That was about it for the positives, as the Yankees showed that they do indeed miss their missing big bats.

And on this night, they also missed James Paxton, who is out with left knee inflammation and was replaced in the rotation by Jonathan Loaisiga.

The right-hander was pounded for four runs in four innings, showing an inability to put hitters away that gave the Mariners added chances to make him pay.

It was Loaisiga’s third start of the season for the Yankees. His best outing came in his previous time out, when he tossed three scoreless innings in relief of CC Sabathia in a win over the Angels on April 24.

“He struggled to put away guys in certain situations,’’ Boone said. “You see the flashes in there and how good it can be. We’ve just got to keep working with him as he continues to develop.’’

Loaisiga had a similar assessment, which was hard to argue after he struggled from the outset against the Mariners, allowing two walks, a hit and a run in a 27-pitch first inning that set the tone.

With Paxton and Luis Severino (strained lat) down, the Yankees have very little starting pitching depth, and Loaisiga needed 83 pitches to get through four innings.

Mitch Haniger led off the third with a homer to make it 2-0, and the Mariners scored a pair of two-out runs in the fourth.

Loaisiga was replaced by Luis Cessa to open the fifth, and Cessa quickly gave up a solo homer to the scorching Edwin Encarnacion, who homered for a second straight night and fourth time in his past five games.

Meanwhile, Kikuchi cruised despite Boone having stacked the Yankees’ lineup with eight right-handed hitters, with only Tauchman swinging from the left side.

Unlike Tuesday, when the Yankees came back from a three-run deficit with a run in the eighth and three more in the ninth to win their third straight and fifth in six games, they couldn’t mount another late rally.

“He really shut us down,’’ Boone said. “We didn’t make much hard contact against him. He was in command. We threw a couple of hits out there, finally, but he beat us down tonight.’’

The Yankees also lost Gio Urshela when he hit a foul ball off his left knee in the bottom of the seventh. He finished the at-bat after a brief visit from trainer Steve Donohue and Boone, but was removed following the inning. X-rays were negative, so they appeared to have avoided another serious injury.