Votto trying to get up to speed on changeups

CINCINNATI — For years, Reds first baseman Joey Votto seemed to be a hitter with few weaknesses. This season, not only have opposing pitchers found his shortcomings, they’ve exploited them.

Baffling to many, Votto is hitting a career-low .205/.337/.353, including a .143 average over his past 12 games.

“I can’t pinpoint it,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “You look up and down at the best players at their baseball cards, there may be at the end of the year you’ll see .310 with 25 homers and 90 RBIs. It doesn’t compartmentalize those stretches where they hit .210 for six weeks, and then hit .360 for two months.”

This goes beyond a typical rough patch for Votto, who has never batted below .238 later than the sixth game of the season. It has a lot to do with the way opposing pitchers are pitching him and how he’s handling certain pitches.

Votto has never been a great changeup hitter, with a .269 career average entering 2016, his second-lowest average on any pitch that he’s seen at least 1,000 times in his career. But this year, Votto has entirely lost his ability to hit them, going 0-for-19 with seven strikeouts.

While about one in every 10 pitches that Votto has seen this season is a changeup — actually below career average — 13.2 percent of his at-bats are ending on changeups, 2 percent higher than his career average. He’s also …

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