Votto: Busting out of slump ‘takes time’

CINCINNATI — First baseman Joey Votto has started the season in one of the more prolonged offensive slumps of his prolific career, but he isn’t being passive about finding a way out of it.

Votto was on the field on Thursday afternoon doing early hitting, with lefty-throwing manager Bryan Price first flipping him balls in a drill and then pitching batting practice.

“Trying to tighten up my swing, make sure that I get it to a place that I can make it repeatable and I can help the team win and carry this winning record to, hopefully, a playoff berth and surprise people and [then go to the] World Series,” Votto said afterward.

Votto entered Thursday batting .182/.270/.255 with one homer, seven walks and 14 strikeouts. He was in an 0-for-16 hitless streak, matching his career-long skid from 2009.

Inside those numbers is hitting data that is a departure for Votto.

Votto has been pulling the ball more this season — 47.7 percent of the time, and 55 percent of the time into an infield shift, according to Fangraphs.com. He pulled the ball 37.1 percent last season, 35.8 percent in 2014 and 31.2 percent in 2013. Heat maps show that pitchers are throwing inside more often this …

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