You made my point for me, he hasn't piched in months, and we're not even sure if he's 100% healthy, so why do we immediatly throttle him into the closer role?
Let's face it the man is not in the position to take the closer role. He's clearly not what he was before and he hasn't pitched in months, so here's a brilliant idea, lets bring him in in the top of the 9th in a tie game with two of the most feared hitters in baseball, that worked out well.
Bottom line here we can't just toss him into the closer role and hope that he gets better as fast as he possibly can, the closer is too important for that. What should have been done, and what I believe should still be done, is let Schilling come in during middle relief innings and let himself gradually work himself towards getting better and getting more used to pitching to major league hitting and THEN put him in the closer role, when he is, or at least appears to be ready.