The All-Star shortstop's fourth error in the AL Championship Series helped New York take the lead with a two-run fourth inning Sunday night as the Yankees beat Boston 9-2 to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

	Bret Saberhagen and the Red Sox had a long night defensively as they committed four errors in losing Game 4.

"They took advantage of a few things tonight, a couple of miscues -- one by me that cost us a run," Saberhagen said. "I thought I make that play 10 out of 10 times, but I guess it's nine out of 10."

In all, the four errors were blamed for two Yankees runs. Boston was 12th in the 14-team AL in fielding, committing 127 errors during the regular season.

"You can't make those types of mistakes, defensive mistakes, especially against this type of ballclub," Boston right fielder Darren Lewis said. "They're going to take advantage of that."

It was Garciaparra's glove that made the first-round draft choice so attractive to the Red Sox. As he quickly rose through the farm system, the team thought his shiny fielding would make up for whatever hitting deficiencies he might have.

But Garciaparra was a star at the plate as well, batting .306 with 30 homers and 98 RBIs to win the AL rookie of the year award in 1997. He topped that as a sophomore, hitting .323 with 35 homers and 122 RBIs.

This season, all he did was lead the AL in batting with a .357 average and hit 27 homers with 104 RBIs. And he cut down on his errors, committing a career-low 17 in the regular season.

But after playing flawless defense in the first round against Cleveland, Garciaparra committed two errors in Game 1 against New York. Neither led to any damage -- and Garciaparra also had two great catches to save three runs -- but the Yankees won 4-3.

In Game 3, Garciaparra had an error in the ninth inning after Boston was already ahead 13-1.

But in Game 4, his defense finally hurt the Red Sox.

"Yeah, it is uncharacteristic," Garciaparra said.

After Paul O'Neill struck out to lead off the fourth, Bernie Williams hit a grounder that Garciaparra picked up on his backhand but threw over first baseman Mike Stanley's head and into the Boston dugout. With Williams on second, Tino Martinez doubled him home to make it 2-2.

After Darryl Strawberry was intentionally walked and Scott Brosius struck out, Chad Curtis hit a grounder to first. Stanley fielded the ball behind the base but Saberhagen couldn't handle the low but catchable throw, and as it rolled away Martinez scored to make it 3-2.

Second baseman Jose Offerman made a low throw to Garciaparra on a potential force at second to allow New York's fourth run of the game to score in the ninth inning. Lewis made Boston's fourth error of the contest when his bouncing throw in the ninth eluded the relay man: Garciaparra.

"We played good baseball for eight innings," Saberhagen said. "We've got to put this behind us, and we've got to pick it up where we did against Cleveland."