Mets personally responsible for Shota Imanaga's ERA skyrocketing

Things haven't gone well for the Chicago Cubs of late as they entered Friday's series opener against the New York Mets in fourth place in the NL Central, but they did have one of their few bright spots, Shota Imanaga, taking the mound for that game.

The Cubs signed Imanaga this past offseason expecting him to be more of a mid-rotation starter, but he had defied all expectations in the early parts of this season.

Imanaga ranked third in the majors with a 1.96 ERA entering Friday's start. This included an outing against the Mets in New York earlier this season in which he delivered seven scoreless innings, allowing just three hits.

It was an entirely different story on Friday as the Mets dealt Imanaga his worst start as an MLB player, skyrocketing his ERA in the process.

Shota Imanaga's ERA skyrockets after brutal outing vs. Mets

Imanaga had an ERA under 2.00 entering the day, which was third in the majors. After he was done, his ERA sat just a shade under 3.00. That is a massive jump, especially this time of year.

Imanaga struggled from the jump on Friday, allowing 10 runs on 11 hits with one walk and only three strikeouts in three innings of work. He had allowed 16 earned runs all season and allowed ten in this one outing. He had allowed more than one home run just once all season and allowed three this outing.

This is one of those starts that Imanaga has to just flush and bounce back from. He did so nicely after his only other brutal MLB start. Imanaga allowed seven runs in 4.1 innings of work in a loss against the Brewers, but allowed a total of four earned runs in his next three starts before this recent rough one.

This one brutal start could be damaging not only in his Cy Young case, but in his Rookie of the Year case. It's a tough loss for the Cubs, but an even worse one for Imanaga.