A Phillies Question

This started as a little "random musings" post, but I've decided to limit it to just one question...well, two, counting the follow-up:

Are the Phillies back on track? And if so, for how long? They've now won 6 in a row, cutting a 7-game deficit in the NL East in half, but they still have uncertainty on a number of fronts. The rumors keep flying about trades: getting Roy Oswalt, giving Jayson Werth, some combination of the two, or something entirely different. The Oswalt stuff swings back and forth hourly, it seems. The Astros won't trade him to St. Louis because they're in the same division! St. Louis is the frontrunner to get him! Oswalt's 2012 option for $16.5 million isn't a problem! He won't agree to any trade unless the team picks up the 2012 option! Oswalt doesn't want to play for the Phillies! The Phillies are the frontrunner to get him now! Thank heavens the trade deadline is Saturday because this is getting tiresome.

Meanwhile, they fired their hitting coach and the offense is still not consistent, although it seems to be picking up. Then there are injuries.
They lost Jamie Moyer from the rotation during their recent road trip. Jimmy Rollins fouled a ball off his foot on Monday and is sitting out for a day or two...unless that changes, and Shane Victorino left tonight's game with a left oblique strain.

And don't get me started on Brad Lidge's tightrope act on Sunday and Monday -- although I actually think, assuming he's not hurt in some way, that the thing he needs most is regular work. There have been stretches where he's sat for 3 or 4 days because there haven't been save situations (all that losing they were doing kind of takes that option away). He pitched in back-to-back games June 18 and 19. After that he pitched on June 22, then had a week off before pitching again June 29, then another week off until July 6. Lidge pitched 3 times in 4 days in the final series (July 8-11) before the All-Star break. Then came the three-day break, and the 8-game road trip in which Lidge appeared twice (saving the only Phils' wins on the trip). Then two more days off before the Sunday/Monday adventure in which he threw 64 pitches in two days and left the bases loaded both days. So that's 3 appearances in 13 days from June 20 through July 7, and 2 appearances in 13 days (counting the All-Star break) from July 12-24.

I always hear that closers can't pitch in non-save situations because they need the extra adrenaline to get that extra couple of miles on their fastball, or variations on that excuse, yet is it better for a closer to sit for a week if a team is losing so often (or winning blowout games) that there aren't any save situations? It's time to re-think this codding of closers.