ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan has coached the art of hitting in professional baseball for seven seasons now, and he’s experienced the requisite highs and lows that come with the job description – particularly since taking over with the Red Sox.

But for Magadan, nothing had fallen into the “high” category quite compares to what the hitting guru witnessed last night.

Magadan watched one of his hardest working pupils, Jason Varitek, turn around a 90-mph, James Shields fastball and smoke a game-winning solo home run to right field in the sixth inning of last night’s 4-2, Game 6 victory over Tampa Bay in the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field.

“I don’t think in my coaching career that I’ve ever been so happy to see a guy get a big hit,” said Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan, who has worked tirelessly with the switch-hitter on batting approach and hitting technique in a campaign that saw the Sox’ captain struggle to finish with a .220 batting average. “It’s been so frustrating for him because he’s so prideful in wanting to do things to help this team win. For him to come up big there was great for us, but even greater for him.”

The Mighty Captain struggled for long stretches during the season, and continued to in the playoffs, going 0-for-15 in the ALCS heading into last night’s fateful sixth inning at bat. Varitek was hitting .103 during the playoffs and hadn’t driven in a single run during Boston’s 10-game playoff march.

Things had worsened to the point he was being lifted for a pinch-hitters in the postseason -- a notion that might have been unthinkable even just one short season ago.

With all that in mind, the entire boisterous Sox bench erupted when Varitek ripped into the offering by “Little Game” James Shields, and extended a ridiculous wave of momentum that has the Sox cresting into Game 7 tonight at Tropicana Field.

“We were in the dugout and I was saying ‘Man it would be great if he hit one out right now’,” said Sox first baseman Sean Casey. “What a great time for a big fly. I don’t know how you can boo that guy, man. He works so hard and cares so much. No one wants to get hits more than he does, so that’s great for him.”

The Rays had previously seized the momentum in the bottom of the fifth when Jason Bartlett launched his own home run into the left field seats that tied the game at 2-2, and Shields approached the sixth with the bottom of Boston’s order coming up.

The bottom three hitters in the Sox lineup have hit a combined .200 (14-for-70) in the series with six runs and 3 RBI, so it was essentially viewed as challenge time by Shields.

“[Varitek] is the type of guy where you don’t expect home runs to be hit off of you, so you’ve got to be a little aggressive,” said Shields with a whiff of disrespect for a down-but-not-out Varitek.

Shields fell behind Varitek 2-0 and then tried to paint the outside corner with a 90 mph fastball, but the catcher worked the barrel head of the bat out in front of the baseball and connected. The ball landed 398 feet away in the right field stands and silenced the cowbells that have essentially transformed the Trop into a domed dairy farm gone mad.

The mighty blow was actually Varitek’s 11th career playoff home run – his first since Game 5 of last season’s ALCS – and snapped a 0-for-15 funk in the ALCS that had the look of so many long stretches of plate futility for the Boston backstop.

The 11 postseason homers tied Varitek with Manny Ramirez on the Red Sox all-time home run list, and placed the clutch-hitting catcher just one homer behind David Ortiz for the most in franchise history.

There are so many things swirling around Varitek that could lead to distraction this postseason: potential angst at being taken out of games for a pinch-hitter for the first time in his decorated career; the offensive doldrums the 36-year-old has endured for the entirety of a baseball season; and the fact that his current contract runs out when this magical Sox carpet ride is over with lingering questions as to whether he’ll be donning Red Stockings again next year.

With all the sub-drama, strife and struggle mixed together to form a potentially distracting backdrop to Varitek’s postseason experience, one might fear that he could deviate a tick from his generally rock-solid philosophies of pitching and team first.

Not this Captain, and not anytime soon.

“I say this all the time, but I can fortunately go 0-for-2000, and put down the right fingers and get pitchers to do stuff and come away gratified,” said Varitek. “You may not have the opportunity in other positions that I have, and I enjoy that.” 

Sure, he was overjoyed to blast a home run that served as a game-winner in an ALCS match-up with the formidable Rays that’s becoming an instant classic, but he was happier still that Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon gritted their way to a victory.

“It’s just about the team,” stressed Varitek when individual questions about his performance popped up. “It’s about working together as a group. We’re still playing baseball. That’s what matters most.”

The catcher saved his ultimate elation, though, for a Game 7 scenario that plays out tonight with a 24-year-old left-handed pitching prodigy named Jon Lester on the mound. The scenario gives Varitek another chance to play the heroic role in a game that could – fair or unfair – begin to determine whether this current Sox run is of dynastic proportions.

One thing is for certain: there’s a huge group of individuals associated with the Sox that are squarely in ‘Tek’s corner.

“When he hit the home run the entire dugout erupted knowing how much he works at it,” said Sox pitching coach John Farrell. “There was an entire group behind him on that given swing. The Baseball gods have a funny way of doing things, and if that’s what it was then so be it and they can do it one more time [tonight].”

Joe Haggerty is a regular contributor to WEEI.com.