After announcing a series of positive injury updates prior to Sunday’s game, the club provided one measure of bad news following the club’s 5-4 win over the Angels as Alex Cora confirmed top set-up man Chris Martin was unavailable due to soreness in his non-throwing shoulder.

“His left shoulder has been bothering him,” Cora said. “We’re going to try to stay away from him, we don’t want him to try to do something mechanic-wise to get to where he needs to go and something happens to him.”

Martin’s absence was noted when the club opted to go with right-hander Justin Slaten in the eighth after he’d already thrown 1.2 innings. Normally that would have been a perfect spot for Martin, who hasn’t pitched since last Wednesday when he gave up three runs in the club’s recent 7-5 loss to Baltimore.

Cora said the injury did not occur in that outing but popped up later and that it’s something Martin has dealt with sporadically throughout his career. They’re hopeful that the issue will subside with rest and that Martin will be able to avoid a stint on the injured list.

Martin is one bullpen arm the Red Sox can’t afford to be without. The veteran posted one of the greatest seasons by a reliever in club history last year when he posted a 1.05 ERA over 55 appearances, and at one point he put together a streak of 24 consecutive scoreless outings, which ended last Friday against the Angels in Anaheim.