DETROIT -- Jim Leyland can’t quite come up with a definitive term for it nor explain why it’s missing, but the Tigers haven’t had

it

this season.

Asked to elaborate after Saturday’s 4-1 win against the Rockies, the manager of a disappointing 31-34 ballclub calmly did his best to do so in between bites of Chinese food.

“Just that attitude of ‘God dammit, we’re going to get this one tomorrow. God dammit, we’re not satisfied with this…God dammit, bury somebody,” Leyland said, punching the air for effect. “Let’s be ready to play that…first inning. Let’s go out and take it to somebody and show we mean business.”

The Tigers had done just that against one of the worst teams in baseball, rebounding from an extra-innings rout the previous night by cruising against Colorado.

Miguel Cabrera smacked a first-inning home run to the opposite field. Doug Fister came off the disabled list to retire the first 11 batters he faced, earning his first win of the year and punching out six Rockies in the process.

Austin Jackson walked four times, giving the Tigers the leadoff presence they missed for more than three weeks recently due to injury. Ryan Raburn, back on the team after his awful start to the season earned him a trip to the minors, extended his hitting streak to four games since returning and played inspired defense on balls hit to the wall.

No, injuries haven’t helped the Tigers’ cause. Leyland said he’s never had to make so many roster moves in his long managerial career. A starting catcher, starting pitcher and top reliever remain on the mend with hamstring, blister and elbow issues. But Leyland was hopeful after Fister gave them a lift.

“If we get back to pretty much normal, not that anybody’s made any excuses, but then you have no excuses,” he said. “It wasn’t like we were playing great when we had everybody healthy, but you want to get ‘em back. If you get ‘em back and you don’t do something, then shame on us.”

So Leyland wants to see consistency on a team built upon a powerful (and pricey) lineup along with the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner. The clubhouse, he said, is made up of “great guys.”

Absent is what Leyland called “a mean streak” and he’s still looking for it to appear.

“I can’t really put my finger on it,” Leyland said. “I’m embarrassed to say that because that’s kind of my job. We haven’t been able to for whatever reason we haven’t sustained that sense of urgency. When I say that, I don’t mean guys aren’t playing hard, guys aren’t trying. I just mean that little extra edge that you need if you want to be a mean bastard, we really haven’t done that very well.

“I don’t want to paint any excuses here. For whatever reason, we haven’t just done a good enough job of going for the throat. When you smell something, you’ve got to make sure you’re locked into that mentality. And we just haven’t done that as well as I would have expected or as well as I would have liked or as well as we need to if we’re going to be good like we are. We are good. We just haven’t shown it enough yet.”





Email Diamond Leung at dleung@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/diamond83.