Seoul: This was a memorable day for the Kiwoom Heroes battery. Catcher Kim Gun-hee blasted his first career grand slam to back an excellent start by right-hander Raul Alcantara, who threw eight shutout innings to help the Heroes defeat the SSG Landers 6-0 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Thursday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Heroes completed a three-game sweep of the Landers in their midweek series while extending their winning streak to a season-best four games. The Heroes improved to 19-26-1 (wins-losses-ties), though they remained in last place. The Landers, having now dropped four in a row, fell to 22-22-1. The Heroes put a man in scoring position in each of the first two innings against starter Ginjiro Hiramoto but let the Japanese pitcher off the hook both times. Then in the third inning, after Hiramoto loaded the bases with two singles and a walk, Kim made him pay with a grand slam to straightaway center.

Kim fell behind 1-2 in the count but drilled a slider that caught the middle of the plate and sent it 130 meters. It turned out to be more than enough run support for Alcantara, who was perfect through 4 1/3 innings. Alcantara pitched around a double and a single in the fifth inning before pitching a clean sixth inning. He walked the first batter of the seventh inning but then retired the next three batters in order.

The Heroes gave Alcantara more breathing room, with RBI singles by An Chi-hong and Lee Hyung-jong pushing their lead to 6-0 in the seventh inning. Alcantara put up another zero in the eighth inning and his pitch count sat at 96. However, reliever Kim Jae-ung took over and pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the tidy win.

Alcantara flummoxed Landers hitters with a three-pitch mix of four-seam fastballs (46), forkballs (29), and sliders (21). He struck out eight batters -- four with a forkball, three with a slider, and one with a four-seamer.