The objectives for Carlos Torres with the Sky Sox have been clearly defined. Pitch a load of innings. Pound the strike zone. Gain the experience required to return to the Rockies.

So far, so good for Torres, who looked like he possessed major-league stuff Sunday in his first start since the Rockies sent him back to Colorado Springs last week, as the Sky Sox struggled offensively in a 5-1 loss to the New Orleans Zephyrs at Security Service Field.

MAY 20 SKY SOX REPORT: NEW ORLEANS 5, SKY SOX 1

Torres recorded a no-decision in allowing one run on three hits, with four strikeouts and a walk in five innings. Wade LeBlanc (2-3) held the Sky Sox (23-20) to a season-low three hits, and in addition to totaling seven strikeouts in eight innings, he retired 19 of the final 20 batters he faced. New Orleans (22-21) broke a 1-1 tie against Stephen Dodson (1-2) in the sixth, on a two-run double by Gaby Sanchez and an RBI single by Matt Dominguez.

Not relinquishing more than three runs in his sixth straight start with the Sky Sox, Torres, 29, mixed his pitches well, and deceptive movement on his changeup enabled him to get by New Orleans’ order the first time around without giving up a hit. Scott Cousins ripped an RBI single off him in the fourth, then he escaped the fifth with Dominguez stranded at third. “He threw the ball well,” Sky Sox manager Stu Cole said. “He gave us a chance.”

Typically in control, Torres said he always attempts “to attack the zone. The days where you’re attacking it with more than one pitch, it’s a good day.” It’s what carried Torres, a 15th-round pick by the White Sox in 2004, in a pair of stints with the White Sox in 2009 and 2010 before he spent last season with a Japanese team that eventually released him.

In spring training, Torres was a long shot to become the fifth starter for the Rockies, and after he was called up this month to take the spot of the ailing Jhoulys Chacin, he posted a 2.25 ERA in three relief outings. The Rockies demoted him to the Sky Sox with starter Jeremy Guthrie back from a shoulder injury, and he would have stayed with the Rockies if the floundering Esmil Rogers could be optioned down without having to clear waivers.

Torres anticipates his future with the Rockies is as a long reliever. When he was with the club, he “tried to pay attention to certain players,” he said, “and I tried to focus on what people were doing with their routines, see how they approach the game. Up there, you’ve got some great guys to sit there and watch, so I sat there, and I took their approach.”

Being in the minors again is “100 percent the nature of the business,” said Torres, who is 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA with the Sky Sox. “You can’t predict what’s going to happen. You can’t assume something. You can’t assume you’re owed this or you get that. It’s just not the way it works. … Everybody here is trying to do the same exact thing.”

Contact Brian Gomez: 719-636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazettedev.gazette.com. Facebook: Brian Gomez. Twitter: @gazetteskysox. Google+: Brian Gomez. For the Sky Sox homepage, visit http://www.gazettedev.gazette.com/sections/roxsox. For the Sky Sox blog, visit http://skysox.freedomblogging.com.

Sky Sox pitcher Carlos Torres Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Darron Cummings