Tunnel vision: Rays' unexpected celebration

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

You might have noticed the Rays’ celebration when Randy Arozarena hit a three-run homer Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. As Arozarena bounced and danced from one end of the visitors' dugout to the other, his teammates formed two parallel lines and held their arms above him.

The home run tunnel is a new feature for Tampa Bay, one that’s seemingly here to stay. Where did it come from? Asking around the clubhouse, everyone pointed to one clear ringleader: Shane McClanahan.

McClanahan said the tunnel celebration was born on July 15, when Christian Bethancourt hit a very strange home run in the Rays’ 5-4 win over the Orioles. McClanahan and veteran Corey Kluber were talking around that point of the game, looking for ways to inject some energy into the dugout.

“It just came to me,” McClanahan said. “I was like, ‘Home run tunnel.’”

If the young ace had any doubts about the idea, they were erased when the unshakably stoic Kluber offered a (relatively) enthusiastic agreement. And getting nearly the whole team to take part in the first one, for Bethancourt, was an encouraging start to the tradition.

“Everybody bought in,” McClanahan said. “You know it’s good when Klubes is like, ‘I like that.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, we have to keep it now. Corey likes it.’ … It was just spur of the moment. Everyone kind of liked it, and we just kept doing it.”

Take Arozarena, for instance. McClanahan noted that he was hesitant at first, perhaps a little uncertain about taking part in the tunnel. But he’s come around on it, and as his smile showed Tuesday night, he’s clearly a fan now. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’s gone deep six times in 26 games since it started, compared to 10 through his first 85 games.

“He’s slowly learning to trust it,” McClanahan said, “the more home runs he hits.”

There aren’t a lot of rules to the celebration, and there are no props involved like there are in some other teams’ post-homer dugout parties. As McClanahan said, “You just run through and get excited.”

“It’s fun,” he added. “When we have everybody out here, that’s a good tunnel. Sometimes, starting pitchers like myself, if we’re inside getting treatment or stuff like that, you’ve got to rely on everybody else to pick you up and make sure it happens.

“That’s always my first question, if I’m inside: ‘Did we tunnel?’ The answer is always 'yes!'"

Well, not always. McClanahan was in the clubhouse Wednesday night when Harold Ramírez went deep in the Bronx, and he found no tunnel awaiting him in the dugout. But they tunneled for Yandy Díaz after his leadoff homer Thursday at Tropicana Field, and McClanahan insists the Rays have to keep it going.

“Why wouldn’t we?” McClanahan asked, grinning.