Physical damage is a major entry point for disease. When critters create wounds, those wounds get easily infected - bacteria, fungal, “other”. The wound looks a bit “clean” to be something like fungal in origin, but the plant itself sure looks infected. Critters carry all sorts of nasty stuff. My guess is that it’s a secondary infection resulting from something chewing it the fuck up. I keep chicken wire around my veggie garden because of little assholes that do this kind of stuff.