Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Four more years! (Well, at least one more)

The Rays pitchers finally allowed the Royals to score a run and their punishment was a 6-2 loss to their wild card-chasing brethren in Kansas City. The two teams will face off for the rubber match of the series on Wednesday, but that’s not until 8:15 p.m., so let’s get caught up on some stories regarding the Rays and the league as a whole.

• Marc Topkin is reporting that Kevin Cash will be back for a fourth season at the helm of the Rays in 2018. Even though even every fan base holds a myriad of opinions on their managers, Cash (to these eyes) is in the top half of the league when it comes to managerial prowess. It would be a lot easier to downgrade than to upgrade.
• Jake Odorizzi will be taking the mound Wednesday night, and he is focused on trimming the walks out of his pitching diet. Odo has walked nine in his last two starts, and he has walked at least two batters in each of his past eight starts. Given the fact that his walk rate (3.94 BB/9) and home run rate (2.17 HR/9) are both career-highs, it’s not surprising his ERA sits near 5.00; in fact, he’s been a little bit lucky his ERA is that low if anything.
• Brendan McKay endeared himself to Rays fans even further with a walkoff single at Class-A Short Season on Tuesday (video about halfway down the link). Is it possible to get more geeked for this guy’s future right now?
• The Rays will have seven players from their system participating in the Arizona Fall League. Brandon Lowe and Kevin Padlo are the two top-30 guys going.
• The Times’ Tom Jones has an interesting and conversation-provoking take on the Astros being forced to play in the Trop when their home city is in such a trying time. Good read.
• You all should be subscribed to The Athletic already, but if you aren’t you should subscribe and your reward will be Ken Rosenthal basically saying that Tim Beckham never mishandled the addition of Adeiny Hechavarria and you’ll get sad. But then you’ll go around the rest of the site and thoroughly enjoy all the excellent content they have!
• Finally, the always-excellent Travis Sawchik (who also writes for The Athletic) has an interesting take on whether more prospects should be given the full-on sink-or-swim treatment. Sawchik notes that the Twins have given Byron Buxton that treatment this season, and it is paying off in spades right now.