Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell makes a barehanded play on a slow roller by the Rockies’ Matt Holliday in the second inning last night, but then ill-advisedly throws the ball away, allowing a run to score.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — Less than a week ago Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling flirted with history. Last night he sputtered.

Boston’s ace was one out away from tossing a no-hitter against the Oakland A’s last Thursday, but had to settle for a complete-game one-hitter. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, he couldn’t carry that momentum into his 14th start of the season last night as Colorado beat up on him en route to a 12-2 victory at Fenway Park.

After the loss, Schilling was already waiting in the interview room for the media to discuss his sub-par outing. As he spoke about it, it was clear he was visualizing the game in his head.

“I don’t know if there was one big problem,” he said. “I had a manageable and winnable game there in the fifth and the three-run homer (by the Rockies’ Brad Hawpe) put it out of reach.”

Ask any player and they’ll tell you they play one game at a time. They don’t let a previous game or an upcoming game factor into the here and now. Schilling said the almost no-hitter in Oakland was not on his mind.

“It was a downer because we lost,” he said. “Every fifth day it’s a new game. I certainly wanted to build on it, but I felt I was throwing the ball well early.”

Nothing seemed to be clicking for Schilling last night, which is unusual because the veteran right-hander had lost just once in his previous 12 starts.

“He had some crazy things happen,” said batterymate Jason Varitek. “On the three-run homer the wheels came off a bit, balls found some holes and we didn’t make the pitches we needed to with two outs. They did a good job of hitting with two outs. Right before the three-run homer he was getting out of it, but he made one mistake. Until that, he would left us in the game and capable of coming back.”

After two innings last night he was already up to 51 pitches and had allowed three runs. He settled down in the third and fourth, retiring the side in order in both innings. In the fifth, however, Hawpe almost hit the Prudential Building with a two-out, three-run homer, an absolute blast off a changeup to right field to give Colorado a 6-2 advantage. Schilling closed out his outing with a strikeout as the Rockies scored all six runs off him (five earned) with two outs.

“We played a sloppy first two innings all around,” said Schilling. “But we settled in and it was a very winnable game until the fifth. … I didn’t make that last pitch when I needed to.”

The bullpen wasn’t all that great, either, as it allowed six more runs over the last four innings as Colorado rolled over Boston.

The Sox didn’t help matters much, stranding runners in scoring positions in the middle innings to give Schilling any kind of cushion.

“He’s going to give it up at some point,” said KevinYoukilis. “It was just one of those days. He didn’t have his A-game. He’ll have to bounce back. He didn’t have his A-game before his (almost) no-hitter, so hopefully he can bounce back like that again.”

The rubber match of this three-game set will be tonight with Josh Beckett (9-0) facing the Rockies’ Jeff Francis (5-5).

“It was just one of those nights,” said Schilling. “It started off weird. We got it under control and then we just let it get away.”

That was obvious, with all the late-inning empty seats at Fenway Park.

With the Red Sox losing and the Yankees winning, Boston’s lead in the A.L. East is its lowest (8½ games) since May 16.

jmcdonal@projo.com