Postgame: Molitor wants to cut down on Ks, increase steals

Three extras from the final game of 2015 at Target Field:

Paul Molitor is proud of what the Twins accomplished this season, but he's already begun thinking about what they can do better next year.

For one thing: Strike out less.

"I'm not one who accepts the trend of [increasing] strikeouts in baseball," the Twins manager said. "Offensively, that's something I'm going to push, in terms of how we can improve."

The Twins finished with 1,264 whiffs this season, fifth-most in the American League. That's also the third-most in franchise history, trailing the 1,430 strikeouts of 2013 and last season's 1,329.

Another area Molitor will target is one he hoped to address before this season: Base running.

"We probably need to take advantage of our athletes and our speed a little bit more," he said of a season in which the Twins stole only 70 bases and were caught 38 times, a 64.8 percent success rate. "I think we have a chance to be a team that combines power with putting pressure on you."

Molitor had suggested starting Torii Hunter in right field, or having him pinch-hit, or sending a replacement out to allow him to walk to the dugout to a big ovation, but the 40-year-old Hunter rejected all such notions. Molitor even called Hunter again Sunday morning to make sure he hadn't changed his mind, but the veteran said he didn't want a manufactured "moment."

"I've had my moment," he said.

Well, he got another one anyway, during the seventh-inning stretch, when the Twins surprised him with a career highlight video on the scoreboard.

"It was very sentimental," said Hunter, who emerged from the dugout to acknowledge a standing ovation. "I kind of looked up there and got emotional, just looking at how far I've come," Hunter said.

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Torii Sr. was watching the game at home with friends and "I went crazy" after the four-yard touchdown pass, he said. "We tore the house up. Then the quarterback ran the ball and we tore it up again."

QB DeShone Kizer was stopped short of the end zone on the two-point conversion try, costing Notre Dame the win.

It also cost Hunter a bet. The proud father had bet a South Carolina native, KSTP cameraman Parker Anderson, on the game, with the loser having to wear the winning team's t-shirt and hat and pose for pictures. Hunter paid off, grudgingly, after the game.