SAN FRANCISCO — When Cincinnati Reds rookie Christian Encarnacion-Strand doubled in the fourth inning Wednesday, a group of fans behind the first-base dugout at San Francisco’s Oracle Park raised a raucous cheer that belied its modest size and could be heard throughout the ballpark.
When the kid first baseman drove a two-run home run over the center-field wall in the eighth, it got even louder. In between he also had a run-scoring single in the sixth — part of a first career four-hit game that provided nearly all the scoring in a 4-1 Reds win over the Giants.