KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Robinson Cano hit his eighth career grand slam, Alex Rodriguez added a three-run shot and the Yankees roughed up Luke Hochevar in a 10-4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Nick Swisher added a homer in his return to the starting lineup, helping the Yankees to a four-game split. The series began with a freak, season-ending injury to All-Star closer Mariano Rivera, but ended with the Yankees’ best offensive output in a dozen games.

The Yankees already led on RBI singles by Raul Ibanez and Curtis Granderson when Cano came to the plate with the bases loaded in the third inning. He connected on a 2-1 pitch from Hochevar (2-3), sending the ball over the wall in right field for his second homer of the season.

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Robinson Cano hit a grand slam in the Yankees' 10-4 win over the Royals.

Swisher added a solo shot two batters later, and A-Rod’s homer came in the eighth.

That was plenty of support for Phil Hughes (2-4), who went a season-high 6 2-3 innings. It was only the second time the right-hander had allowed fewer than four runs this season.

The Royals had nine hits but couldn’t put them together for a big inning.

Billy Butler provided an RBI double in the first, Alex Gordon added a run-scoring single in the fifth, and Humberto Quintero snapped a 0-for-18 skid with a solo homer in the seventh. Jarrod Dyson tacked on an RBI single in the ninth.

The Yankees had been having similar troubles lately. They scored a combined 11 runs over the past five games, their worst stretch since June 2009, and were coming off a game in which Derek Jeter, Cano, Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira combined to go 1 for 15 at the plate.

They didn’t have much problem against Hochevar.

The Royals’ former No. 1 overall draft pick was battered for the second straight start, his ERA soaring to 9.00 on the season. He was yanked after 2 1-3 innings, and has allowed 16 runs and 19 hits with four walks and a hit batter his past two starts.

Hochevar got in trouble right from the opening pitch, giving up a leadoff single to Jeter, who reached base four times on the afternoon. But the Yankees didn’t really capitalize until the third inning, when their bats finally awoke with a vengeance.

No. 9 hitter Dewayne Wise started a string of three straight base hits, and Granderson’s RBI single was the 1,000th hit of his career. Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to the load the bases for Cano, who delivered his first grand slam since last September against Baltimore.

Swisher, who had the Yankees’ other slam this season, chased Hochevar when he sent a 1-2 pitch into the seats in right two batters later. Swisher had been out since hurting his hamstring last Sunday against Detroit, but looked just fine trotting around the bases at Kauffman Stadium.

Irving Falu provided the Royals with a rare bright spot.

Falu had spent more than nine years and 949 games in the minor leagues before getting his first major league start at shortstop. He tripled in his first at-bat, and then added a single in the fifth inning, coming around to score on Gordon’s base hit.

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Nba: Rondo’s triple-double lifts Celtics

In Boston, Rajon Rondo , who was suspended for Game 2 after bumping an official in Game 1, had a triple-double with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists to lead the Celtics to a 90-84 OT victory over the Hawks last night and give Boston a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

In Denver, Ty Lawson scored 25 points to lead the Nuggets to a 99-84 win over the Lakers, trimming Los Angeles’ lead to 2-1 in their playoff series. Kobe Bryant scored 22 points.

In Philadelphia, Spencer Hawes scored 21 points, grabbed nine rebounds and hit the go-ahead jumper late in the fourth quarter to help the 76ers rally to beat the Bulls 79-74 and take a 2-1 lead in their playoff series.

hockey: Coyotes take 3-1 series lead

In Nashville, Shane Doan scored in the first period, Mike Smith made 25 saves as the Coyotes beat the Predators 1-0 to grab a 3-1 lead in their West semifinal series.

In Helsinki, Finland, Islanders forward Kyle Okposo scored twice to help the U.S. beat France 7-2 in the first game of the world hockey championships.

nfl: Union wants Goodell out of appeal

The players association wants to remove Roger Goodell from the process when four players file appeals of their suspensions for the Saints’ bounty program.

The union filed a grievance challenging the commissioner’s authority to suspend the current and former players who took part in the bounties from 2009-11.

The complaint claims Goodell is prohibited from punishing players for any aspect of a pay-for-hits program occurring before the new collective bargaining agreement was signed last August.

Junior Seau’s brain will be donated by his family for research into football-related head injuries. Seau, an All-Pro linebacker with three NFL teams, was found dead Wednesday at his Oceanside, Calif. home after shooting himself in the chest.

Ex-Ohio State and Colts quarterback Art Schlichter has been sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison for scamming participants in a million-dollar sports ticket scheme.

etc.: Hurting Red Bulls visit Galaxy tonight

Even with the return of Jan Gunnar Solli, the Red Bulls still will be missing six regulars, including Thierry Henry, for tonight’s game with the MLS Cup-champion Galaxy (8 p.m., ESPN) in Los Angeles. — Brian Lewis

New documents filed by attorneys for former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky suggest there are at least 17 accusers in the sex abuse case, a much higher number than described in criminal charges.

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Keith J. Kelly

In a year when no one title dominated, Time took home top honors as Magazine of the Year, while long-time rivals The New Yorker and New York magazine made the most trips to the dais at last night’s National Magazine Awards.

Time won for editorial excellence in print, where it has managed to keep its circulation at 3.2 million, as well as in digital, where it had 8.8 million unique visitors in March, according to comScore. Managing Editor Rick Stengel was on hand to pick up the awards.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams handed out the 18 awards — known as “Ellies” after the elephant statuettes designed by Alexander Calder that are bestowed upon the winners.

Terry McDonell, editor of the Time Inc. sports group that includes Sports Illustrated, was formally inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame for a career that included editorships at Us Weekly, Men’s Journal, Smart, Esquire and Sports Afield, as well as top positions at Rolling Stone and Newsweek.

McDonell received the only standing ovation of the evening. New Yorker writer Ken Auletta said, “Terry is rebel in a suit.”

Of the changing magazine world, McDonell said, “Change is going to be very, very good, especially when the choice is change or go home.”

Adam Moss, editor-in-chief of New York, strode to the dais to accept three awards for the weekly: long-form journalism for “Paper Tigers” by Wesley Yang; best regular section for “Strategist” and best single topic issue for “The Encyclopedia of 9/11,” published on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

His trifecta was the most for any magazine last night, edging out his closest rival, David Remnick, editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, who made two trips to the winners circle. Both weeklies had six nominations.

Earlier in the day, New York was also chosen as best cover of the year for a Photoshopped image of a 50-year-old nude woman who appeared to be pregnant.

The image evoked the groundbreaking photo of a genuinely pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair during Tina Brown era in 1991. The iconic pose has been much copied over the years, most recently by Elle, which put Jessica Simpson on the April cover.

Brown, who now runs Newsweek/Daily Beast, didn’t make any treks to the winners’ circle last night. However, Beast won a digital Ellie last month.

After getting shut out in the digital Ellies, Remnick accepted the award for public service for “The Invisible Army” by Sarah Stillman, about the exploitation of foreign nationals on military bases overseas, and the best reporting award for writer Lawrence Wright for “The Apostate,” a profile of filmmaker Paul Haggis’s struggle with the Church of Scientology.

“Tonight wasn’t just about one or two magazines,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of ASME. “Service and lifestyle titles like, O, the Oprah Magazine and House Beautiful won their first General Excellence awards, but so did business and tech books like Inc. and IEEE Spectrum.”

With noted editor Susan Casey at the helm, Oprah Winfrey’s magazine was honored for general excellence in women’s magazines. It must come as a welcome relief after single-copy sales tumbled 32 percent in the second half. Casey said, “I really want to thank my amazing team. Most of all, I want to thank Oprah.”

House Beautiful was honored for the first time for general excellence in lifestyle magazines.

Bloomberg Businessweek, edited by Josh Tyrangiel, won for general excellence among general interest mags.

GQ was honored for design, giving creative director Fred Woodward his second such award. Vogue bagged an Ellie for overall general excellence in photography.

Other big wins were snagged by Esquire for feature writing; The New York Times Magazine for feature photography; and Inc. for general excellence for active and special interest mags serving targeted audiences.

Late Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens pulled in top honors for columns and commentary with three pieces: “When the King Saved God,” “Unspoken Truths” and “From Abbottobad to Worse.”

VF Editor Graydon Carter accepted the award, while Hitchens’ widow, Carole Blue, watched from the audience. “He was one of the bravest persons I’ve ever known,” Carter said of Hitchens, who died of cancer in December 2011.

Among smaller titles, Zoetrope: All Story, the literary mag founded by Francis Ford Coppola, won for best fiction for a story by Karen Russell, Saveur won for leisure interests and Dallas title D won for profile writing for “He is Anonymous,” by Tom Rogers.

Glamour nabbed the personal service award for a Liz Brody piece, “The Secret That Kills Four Women a Day” and Harper’s Magazine won for news and documentary photography.

Organizers succeeded in keeping the event to just over two hours at the Marriott Marquis, in sharp contrast to a year ago, when it dragged on past midnight.

Said People Managing Editor Larry Hackett, also the outgoing ASME president,“To those of you who brought sleeping bags, you won’t have to use them.”

kkelly@nypost.com

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Quarterback controversy? What quarterback controversy?

That was the basic message from new Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano yesterday. With Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow in the fold, Sparano has the most closely watched quarterbacks room in the NFL.

Sparano refused to say exactly how he plans on using Tebow, but he is not worried about the potential problems that come with having the most popular backup on earth under his watch.

“Mark Sanchez is one hell of a player and I am so excited about the opportunity to coach with him and Tim Tebow’s a good football player, too,” Sparano said on a conference call with reporters. “I think when you put both of these guys in a room and they’re playing checkers they’re going to compete at it and they’re going to go like heck to win.

“I think the more of those people you can get around your football team and in this environment, the better off your football team is going to be. I think that we helped our team tremendously. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem managing it.”

We’ll see.

Sparano said general manager Mike Tannenbaum and head coach Rex Ryan asked his opinion before they traded for Tebow in March. He said he was “completely on board.”

The Jets coaches have only gotten to work with players on the field for a few days. They have been meeting with them for three weeks, though. Sparano, who coached Tebow in the Senior Bowl in 2010, said he has seen improvement in Tebow’s throwing ability while studying film and on the practice field this week.

“That has been eye-opening,” Sparano said. “I thought fundamentally Tim has gotten much better. You could see the amount of time he spent at it. Really, this kid has put in a lot of time in the offseason from a fundamentals standpoint. He’s completely different now from when he came out of college.”

Sparano chose to keep his plans for Tebow to himself, but backed up what Ryan said in March — that Tebow could be used as much as 20 plays per game. He said he won’t tie himself to one thing. He did say the possibility of Tebow playing running back, fullback or H-back are “all on the table.”

“Obviously, our first goal here is to turn Tim into . . . to continue to work with Tim and to continue to have him mature as a quarterback,” Sparano said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here. With that being said, he comes with a different skill set obviously, from college. I think that’s a good thing for us. He has the ability to do a lot of different jobs. “

Sparano praised nearly everyone on the Jets roster from Santonio Holmes to Wayne Hunter. He said he has studied every Jets snap from 2010 and 2011 to get to know the team.

****The Jets signed second-round draft pick Stephen Hill to a four-year $5 million deal with about $2.8 million guaranteed, according to a source. Hill, a speedy wide receiver from Georgia Tech, will be on the practice field today as the Jets begin rookie minicamp. . . . The Jets have expressed interest in bringing back cornerback Drew Coleman, according to his agent, Alan Herman. The Jaguars released Coleman, who played for the Jets from 2006-10, yesterday. Herman said the Jets were among three teams that called with interest.

* The Jets signed second-round draft pick Stephen Hill to a four-year $5 million deal with about $2.8 million guaranteed, according to a source.

Hill, a speedy wide receiver from Georgia Tech, will be on the practice field today as the Jets begin rookie minicamp, which runs through Sunday.

* The Jets have expressed interest in bringing back cornerback Drew Coleman, according to his agent Alan Herman. The Jaguars released Coleman, who played for the Jets from 2006-10, yesterday. Herman said the Jets were among three teams that called with interest.

* The Jets waived guard Trevor Canfield .

brian.costello@nypost.com

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WASHINGTON—Andy Pettitte on Wednesday backed away from his testimony against former baseball teammate Roger Clemens, leaving a judge to consider whether a central plank of the case against Mr. Clemens should be removed from the jury's consideration.

Baseball pitcher Andy Pettitte on Wednesday backed away from his testimony that friend and teammate Roger Clemens once admitted to having used performance-enhancing drugs. Janet Adamy has details on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.

Mr. Pettitte's second day on the witness stand against Mr. Clemens, who is on trial for allegedly lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs, undercut much of his first.

On Tuesday, the New York Yankees pitcher told jurors in federal court here that in 1999 or 2000 he had a conversation with Mr. Clemens in which the pitching great admitted having used human growth hormone.

On Wednesday, under questioning from one of Mr. Clemens's lawyers, he conceded there was a 50-50 chance that he had misunderstood Mr. Clemens, and later referred to the exchange as "the conversation I thought I had,'' casting fresh doubt on a prosecution case that has already seen one mistrial.

Mr. Pettitte, 39 years old, played with Mr. Clemens, 49, on the Yankees and the Houston Astros and has said it is difficult to testify against a man he considers a good friend and a mentor. Through both days of testimony, he was visibly uncomfortable on the stand, averting his gaze from Mr. Clemens and speaking softly, often with short, barely audible answers.

As he left court Wednesday, he was asked if he was glad his part in the case is over.

"Yeah,'' he said.

Mr. Clemens's lawyer, Michael Attanasio, urged Judge Reggie Walton to instruct the jury not to consider Mr. Pettitte's account of the HGH conversation. That would change Mr. Pettitte's role in the trial from that of a key prosecution witness to an asset for the defense. Much of the rest of his testimony consists of his saying he never saw Mr. Clemens with steroids, needles or performance-enhancing drugs and never thought as he watched him play that Mr. Clemens was cheating with steroids or HGH.

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Andy Pettitte on Tuesday testified that Roger Clemens said he used growth hormone. On Wednesday, Mr. Pettitte, above, said he wasn't sure.

Judge Walton didn't immediately rule on the request but seemed to agree with the reasoning. "His testimony now before the jury is 'I don't know,' '' the judge said.

Prosecutor Steven Durham, who was also the prosecutor when the attempt to try Mr. Clemens last year ended in a mistrial, was on the defensive for much of the day. At one point, as prosecutors sought to introduce evidence that might violate attorney-client privilege, Judge Walton became exasperated.

"Maybe I'm dense. Maybe I don't understand the law," he said. "You all are taking positions that seem totally absurd to me.''

Mr. Clemens has pleaded not guilty. He faces the possibility of about a year and a half in prison if convicted of perjury and obstruction of Congress.

Attorney General Eric Holder, responding to questions at an unrelated news conference later in the day, said he was unaware of Mr. Pettitte's testimony, but he defended the government's prosecution.

"One has to view these cases in their totality…It's about testifying falsely before Congress," he said. "On that basis, I think it was a justified use of our resources to bring the case."

—Brent Kendall
contributed to this article.

Write to Devlin Barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared May 3, 2012, on page A6 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Pettitte Throws Prosecutors a Curve.

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Dolby Laboratories Inc. acquired naming rights to the theater that hosts the Oscars.

CIM Group, the owner of the theater, reached 20-year deals with Dolby, and with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to keep the ceremony at the location it’s occupied since 2002, according to a statement.

Dolby Laboratories Inc., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts

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Chris Kreider has become the darling for the Rangers in this playoff run, and a lot of his success has to do with his ability to adjust.

In seven career games, Kreider has played on four distinctly different lines, finding at least a modicum of success on each.

“I think it might be a little strange if I had done it in college or the high-school level,” Kreider said yesterday as his team prepared for tonight’s Game 3 of their conference semifinal playoff series against the Capitals in Washington. “All these guys are such good players, it’s kind of easy to play with every single one of them.”

Kreider, who turned 21 on Monday, made his NHL debut in Game 3 of the opening round against the Senators, immediately playing on the top line with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik. He was somewhat tentative in that role, so for the next game coach John Tortorella played him just 3:29 on the fourth line with John Mitchell and Mike Rupp.

After two solid performances with them, he was moved up to play with Ryan Callahan and Derek Stepan, where he was until the third period of Monday’s 3-2 loss to Capitals, which tied the series 1-1.

Then, Tortorella switched him and Gaborik, so Kreider played on the left side for the first time as a pro with Richards and Carl Hagelin.

***

A lot was made about the 13:36 of ice time that Capitals star Alex Ovechkin got in Game 2, the least amount of time he ever has gotten in his career for a game during which he was not injured or ejected.

Dan Girardi, the Rangers defenseman who almost always is matched up against the opposing team’s top talent, in turn got a playoff-low 20:35.

“I think that’s a good explanation,” Girardi said. “He didn’t play a lot, but I think that’s the matchup we’re trying to get, and that’s the way it worked out.”

***

Tortorella got snappy with the media when asked about the reason behind his abrupt and contentious press conferences this postseason.

“Are you being a wise [guy]?” Tortorella asked the inquiring reporter. “I’m not going to give you much information. Some of you guys sit there and tell me I’m curt or whatever. I’m not going to have a staring contest. If you’re not going to ask me questions, I’ll just leave. That’s the way it is. I’m sorry I’m not a guy who wants to converse during the playoffs. I’m not.”

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With their starting pitchers routinely getting battered around, the Yankees could use all the help they can get in the outfield — so Nick Swisher’s departure from yesterday’s 6-2 win over the Tigers with a strained left hamstring isn’t what they needed.

The right fielder will be out “more than a few days,” according to manager Joe Girardi, but he won’t be put on the disabled list at this point. Swisher looked to have injured himself after a swing during an at-bat in the third inning, and he left the game following his walk in that same at-bat.

“We’ll see how he progresses the next few days,” Girardi said.

Bill Kostroun

NICK KNOCKED: Accompanied by manager Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donahue, Nick Swisher limps off the field after straining his left hamstring during yesterday’s 6-2 Yankees win over the Tigers.

Brett Gardner is already on the shelf with a right elbow strain and not eligible to return until Thursday, so the Yankees could be shorthanded in the outfield.

“Right now, we’re not doing anything,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “In the short term, I could call up Melky Mesa [from Double-A Trenton] for defense.”

Yesterday, Andruw Jones replaced Swisher in the lineup, with Raul Ibanez moving from left to right. But having both veterans (or Eduardo Nunez) playing the outfield would make life difficult for center fielder Curtis Granderson.

“We’ll try to get through it,” Girardi said of the loss of Swisher, who has a team-high 23 RBIs. “We’ll know more [today].”

Additional reporting by George A. King III

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BOGOTA—Four soldiers from a Colombian antidrug battalion were killed after a gunfight with Marxist rebels, while a French journalist accompanying the soldiers surrendered to the guerillas, officials said on Sunday.

The violence could dash what had been rising hopes for a peaceful resolution to the conflict after the rebels this month freed 10 military hostages in what it called an unconditional "humanitarian gesture."

The gunfight erupted Saturday morning in Colombia's lightly populated southern state of Caqueta. The army dispatched a soldiers to the area in helicopters to destroy cocaine laboratories hidden in the jungle and operated by the country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the Defense Ministry said.

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A wounded soldier was transported to a hospital in Florencia Saturday.

After destroying five coke labs and heading toward a sixth, FARC fighters ambushed the army unit as it was descending from helicopters in a jungle clearing, the ministry said.

Four Colombian soldiers were killed in the fighting, while five other soldiers and Romeo Langlois, a 35-year-old French journalist with Paris-based news outlet France 24, went missing once the smoke cleared, officials said. The missing soldiers have since been accounted for, some with injuries.

Col. Yamil Antonio Gutiérrez, the army's commander of counternarcotics, said in an interview that the last that Colombia's military saw or heard of Mr. Langlois was on the battlefield.

A rebel bullet injured Mr. Langlois's left arm during the battle, after which he announced himself as a civilian and sought their protection, Col. Gutiérrez said. "The French journalist was under our protection when the firefight was going on. But then he all of a sudden took off his bulletproof jacket and took off his helmet, and ran toward the FARC rebels."

He added, "The last we saw of him, he was alive, and except for his arm, in good health."

Earlier, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said his government was informed that Mr. Langlois was "taken prisoner" by the FARC during the gun battle. "The confrontation was brutal, there were deaths, and the journalist was taken prisoner," Mr. Juppe said. Mr. Gutierrez said he didn't know the source of Mr. Juppé's information.

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French journalist Romeo Langlois in June. Paris-based news outlet France24 identified Mr. Langlois as its employee.

France 24 said on its website that Mr. Langlois is a French citizen who lives in Colombia and has extensively covered the South American country. It said he was "covering the army's crackdown on narco-traffickingfor France 24"when the events unfolded and he was taken. France 24 said Mr. Langlois also worked on assignment for French newspaper Le Figaro. But while the rebels say they want to talk peace, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos has consistently dismissed the possibility of any immediate negotiations. He says his government will only agree to sit down with the FARC if it releases all remaining kidnap victims and agree to a ceasefire.Colombia has long been one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.And while New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said deadly antipress violence in Colombia has "slowed considerably" in recent years, it says Colombia still ranks as the fifth-most dangerous country, after Iraq, Somalia, Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Nahida Nakad, editorial director of Audiovisual Exterieur de la France, of which FRANCE 24 is a part, expressed concerned for Mr. Langlois on the news outlet's website. "Of course we are very worried, but we have every confidence in Romeo who knows the territory very well and is an experienced journalist," Mr. Nakad said on France24.com."We hope that he is safe and sound, and we are in constant contact with his family."

The FARC, which funds itself primarily through drug trafficking, has been fighting a guerrilla war against the government since the 1960s.

While the FARC once controlled large swaths of Colombia's rural areas, a successful military offensive by the government over the last decade pushed them deep into the jungles. The government estimates the insurgency currently has about 9,000 armed fighters, about half of what the group had 10 years ago.

Despite the FARC's reduced size in recent years, the group has shown over the past 12 months it is still capable of frequent, deadly attacks on the armed forces and other strategic targets, including Colombia's oil industry that includes many foreign companies.

A longtime oil producer in Colombia, California-based Occidental Petroleum Corp., said Thursday its output in Colombia dropped 23% during the first three months of 2012, to 24,000 barrels a day of crude oil. It blamed the drop on "higher insurgent activity."

The weekend violence could spoil what had been rising hopes for possible peace talks between the rebels and the government after the guerrillas this month freed 10 military hostages, some of whom had been held for 14 years in the jungle.

Write to Dan Molinski at Dan.Molinski@dowjones.com

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In January 2011, when Liverpool acquired Andy Carroll from Newcastle United for $55 million, he had just turned 22. Never before had a player so young or with such a scant track record switched clubs for such an enormous amount. At the time, Carroll had seen a grand total of 2,409 minutes of Premier League action, considerably less than most regulars will play in a year. Apart from one season in Newcastle's second flight, the odd cup game and a stint on loan in the lower leagues with Preston North End, that was the extent of Carroll's career.

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Andy Carroll scored the game-winner for Liverpool in its FA Cup match Saturday.

And still Liverpool chose to make him the second-most-expensive player in the history of the Premier League. It wasn't for what he had achieved—which wasn't very much—but for what his potential suggested he might one day achieve. In that sense, he was soccer's ultimate project.

As projects go, he has thus far been soccer's answer to Michael Olowokandi, the No. 1 pick in the 1998 NBA draft who averaged 8 points per game over his career. Carroll has started not even half of the Reds' games since arriving at Anfield. The return for Liverpool: six league goals in 15 months.

On Saturday, however, Carroll enjoyed hero status after scoring the late winner in an FA Cup semifinal against crosstown rival Everton. His goal broke a 1-1 deadlock and showcased the skill set that prompted Liverpool to break the bank for his services in the first place. With three minutes left, Carroll rose into the London sky with big-bodied opponent Marouane Fellaini all over him, met Craig Bellamy's free kick and headed it past Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard.

His performance wasn't flawless. Early in the second half, Carroll also missed a clear-cut chance. But the goal served as a reminder that size and athleticism are qualities that can't be taught, and Carroll packs plenty into his 6-foot-3 frame. You can plan all you like, but if the opponent has a big man who can do what Carroll did to Everton, you'll be in jeopardy every time you concede a corner or a free kick.

The question now is whether Carroll can do this on a regular basis. And the answer is rather complex.

The whole notion of a target man—the hulking centerforward who acts an an offensive terminus—is arguably obsolete. Few of Europe's top teams use the old-school big man up front. Milan (Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and Arsenal (Robin Van Persie) both have strong, tall strikers, but both are also extremely skillful, complete players who roam the attacking front and often create chances for teammates. Carroll isn't in the same realm of technical ability or vision. Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez perhaps comes closest to what Carroll might become, except he's also a clinical finisher with 39 goals this season.

Getting the most out of a Carroll-type centerforward requires the right supporting cast, including wide players who can ensure a steady supply of service and a second striker or attacking midfielder who can use the space the big man creates. Liverpool has neither. Its wingers have been inconsistent, and its other striker, Luis Suarez, hasn't shown much chemistry with Carroll.

In short, Liverpool isn't a particularly well-assorted team. Which may explain why its performance in the Premier League once again has been inconsistent, with Liverpool currently sitting in eighth place.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Liverpool director of football strategy Damien Comolli, the club's transfer guru, was let go last week. Comolli officially left for "family reasons." But while addressing Liverpool fans in a question-and-answer session, Liverpool chairman Tom Werner conceded that Comolli "was probably not the right person to implement that strategy." Manager Kenny Dalglish did little to dispel any notion of mutual consent when he said Friday: "Unfortunately, the guy has lost his job. That's not a pleasant day for anybody."

Carroll's pricey signing wasn't Comolli's only questionable move. And as Dalglish himself admitted, he had the final say on all decisions. But Liverpool has a huge amount of money tied up in its No. 9. What it needs is a clear strategy to deal with Carroll, and the departure of the guy who was supposed to provide just that suggests the previous approach wasn't working.

What's most interesting—and most critical for Liverpool's future—at this point is how the club reacts going forward. Does it build around Carroll, catering to his characteristics in the hope that he will fully tap his potential? Or does it write him off at great expense? If Liverpool put Carroll up for sale this summer, with four years to run on a hefty contract, it would likely mean recouping less than half the $55 million.

Yet Carroll is unlikely to improve simply by coming off the bench for a team that isn't built to showcase his skill set. That would only depress his transfer value even further. In other words, the worst possible outcome could well be maintaining the status quo.

—Gabriele Marcotti is the world soccer columnist for The Times of London and a regular broadcaster for the BBC.

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