After having torn through the competition for the better part of a month and surging to the top of the American League East, confidence is at an all-time high in the Toronto Blue Jays’ clubhouse.

John Gibbons was a guest on Baseball Central at Noon on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Friday, and the Blue Jays manager discussed his club’s confidence, the plan for Drew Hutchison and getting shifty with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.

Having won 21 of their last 26 games, the Blue Jays are a club riding high. With a loss to the Rangers on Thursday, Gibbons noted the collective feeling on the charter flight home was much different than it would have been a year ago.

“It’s really a confident group right now,” Gibbons told Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker. “Everybody feels the team is better. The last two years it would have been different. Even when we were playing good baseball, you almost had the feeling like we were just hanging on.

“This group, it is a different feel, they think they can win every game. I sense that. You don’t always get that, that’s rare in this business. You can never count this group out. You’ve seen that many times this year with big deficits, we come back and pull out some wins.”

The Blue Jays will kick off a three-game set with the Detroit Tigers Friday night at the Rogers Centre. Gibbons confirmed plans for Hutchison to return to the rotation on Saturday, following a short stint with Triple-A Buffalo.

“He was just going down there for one start,” said Gibbons. “Just fine-tuning. We weren’t concerned with results. It’s unfortunate he even had to go down, but with the schedule and the way it lined up for us… he’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

Gibbons also discussed his club’s defensive approach when Dickey is on the mound, specifically about deploying the shift with Dickey’s unpredictable knuckleball.

“When he [Dickey] first came over here from the Mets we were just starting to do a lot of shifting,” Gibbons said. “It was taking over baseball. We talked to him about it. He’s a knuckleballer, he doesn’t really know where the ball is going … our thinking was we didn’t want to open up big holes on the infield. That’s what his thinking was, so that first year we didn’t do any shifting with him.

“He had the liberty to turn around and look at infielder or an outfielder and move them on his own. Last year he started buying into it a little bit, and he said: ‘You know what, there’s certain guys I want to start doing this with.’ This year, he’s all-in. It’s paid off for him.”

Dickey will take the ball in the series opener Friday, with former Blue Jay Matt Boyd on the bump for the Tigers.