Marcus Stroman can smell the finish line. Or is it the starting line?

For the determined righthander, it is both.

Stroman, who tore his ACL in a spring training fielding drill, has made a remarkable recovery and is one rehab start away from rejoining the Blue Jays. His role is still to be determined but, coming off 4.2 innings of no-hit ball on Thursday, pitching for the Lansing Lugnuts of the class-A Midwast League, he feels he is ready for anything.

“I can’t say how excited I am to be coming back to be with my brothers,” Stroman told Sportsnet, speaking of his Blue Jays teammates.

Stroman will join his teammates Friday, stay in Toronto through the weekend and accompany the Jays when they go to Boston Sunday night. He will drive to nearby Pawtucket on Monday to make an 80-pitch start for the Buffalo Bisons in their final game of the International League season against the Red Sox triple-A affiliate.

“Nobody puts higher expectations on me than I do myself,” said Stroman, who struck out six batters on Thursday.

While he was rehabbing in Florida, Stroman worked on a new changeup that he used effectively in the game Thursday and expects to incorporate into his six-pitch arsenal when he returns to the big leagues.

Hutch Gets The Call

If Stroman is to rejoin the starting rotation, the betting seems to be that it will be Drew Hutchison’s spot that is most vulnerable. That would be a very tough call, given how good Hutchison has been at the Rogers Centre this year. In his 14 home starts this season, he is 11-1 with a 2.46 ERA. On the road is a different story. In 11 starts he has a 2-1 record and a 9.00 ERA, averaging less than five innings per start.

The baffling part of those splits is that last year, they were exactly opposite. He had a much better ERA on the road than at home in 2014 and for most of the year had to field questions about why he was having so much trouble at home.

On Friday, he faces the Baltimore Orioles, who he has handled well no matter where he faces them. He has made 10 career starts against the O’s with a 5-1 record and a 3.13 ERA.

Coming On Strong

Lefthanded reliever Brett Cecil currently holds the longest active scoreless streak in the majors, having not allowed a run in his last 23 games, a span of 20 innings. During that period he has held opponents to a .186 batting average.

Cecil’s renaissance came after a slow start to the season when he was named the club’s closer coming out of spring training.

Cecil struggled in that role early, though it wasn’t necessarily his fault. The Blue Jays only had a handful of save opportunities in the first couple of months of the season. Either the team was behind late in games or they were winning by five runs.

Fastball command became an issue for Cecil in June and that’s when Roberto Osuna was installed as the closer. In the meantime, Cecil has thrived in his role as a late-inning setup man. He has regained his fastball command and that enhances the effectiveness of his best pitch, the curve ball.

Edwin Hitless Again

For the second game in a row after his 26-game hit streak, Edwin Encarnacion was held hitless on Wednesday but he did extend his consecutive games streak for reaching base to 33 games with a walk ... Ryan Goins now has a 12-game hit streak. ... Ben Revere’s two hits on Wednesday give him four multi-hit games in his last seven. He now has hits in 12 of his last 13 games to bump his average since joining the Jays to .324.