Washington, DC -- (Sports Network) - Brandon Webb continued his mastery of Washington to log his major league-best 13th victory, leading the Diamondbacks to a 2-0 win in the opener of a three-game set at Nationals Park.

Webb (13-4), who has now pitched 25 consecutive scoreless innings against Washington dating back to 2007, threw six shutout innings on six hits, striking out six and walking two on Tuesday. The righty has now won four consecutive starts against the Nationals, allowing one run in 31 innings in those outings.

"Once again it was a battle. I haven't had an easy inning in about a month it doesn't seem like," Webb said. "I'm throwin' a lot of pitches, but there are signs today that I'm getting it back. My arm feels great and my release point is there most of the time, but sometimes it's not and that's where I'm falling behind the hitters."

Brandon Lyon pitched a perfect ninth for his 19th save.

Chris Young was the only player in the game to be credited with a run batted in, singling home a run in the third and giving the Diamondbacks their second straight win after losing four of five.

"We didn't look great offensively tonight, but just enough. You can live with it when you win, but it's frustrating when you lose," said Arizona manager Bob Melvin. "Neither team could really do much offensively tonight, (we couldn't) really get too many good swings, yet alone hits and runs."

Odalis Perez (2-6) pitched very well in 2 2/3 innings before being ejected, but received the loss nonetheless. He allowed one unearned run on one hit, striking out two and walking one.

Steven Shell took over for Perez and didn't miss a beat, throwing a career- high 2 1/3 innings, allowing only a hit while striking out two and walking four.

Austin Kearns and Dmitri Young had two hits apiece for Washington, which lost its sixth straight game.

Webb got into a bit of trouble in the second, allowing the first two runners to reach base. After inducing a fielder's choice off the bat of Jesus Flores, he struck out Wily Mo Pena and he got Roger Bernadina to hit a weak groundout to second base, ending the threat.

The Diamondbacks got an unearned run in the third thanks to an error from Cristian Guzman and a balk from Perez. With two outs and a man on first, umpire Angel Hernandez called a balk, sending Chris Burke to second. Chris Young promptly singled to center to give the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead.

On the first pitch to the next batter, Perez was called for another balk by Hernandez. The southpaw started screaming at the home plate umpire and was ejected immediately.

Shell came in to relieve Perez and worked out of a jam in the fourth. With one out, Shell walked Mark Reynolds and gave up a double to Justin Upton, putting runners on second and third. Robby Hammock hit a short fly ball for the second out, and after an intentional walk to load the bases, Webb struck out looking to end the inning.

Kearns and Dmitri Young each got on base for the second time in the game with back-to-back one-out singles in the bottom of the fourth, putting runners on the corners. Webb got out of the jam once again, however, getting Flores and Pena to strike out.

Once again in the fifth the Nationals had runners in scoring position, as Washington loaded the bases with two outs. However, the Nationals could not cash in again as Kearns - a .450 career hitter against Webb - flied out to center to strand the three baserunners.

Another error gave the Diamondbacks their second run of the game in the sixth, as Bernadina missed a Hammock two-out single to center with a runner on first, allowing the ball to roll to the wall and the Reynolds to score.

Game Notes:

Guzman had a 14-game hit streak snapped after going 0-for-3...Webb had thrown two consecutive shutouts against the Nationals before this start...Arizona leads the season series 3-1 and has won nine of 11 against Washington...The Diamondbacks improved to 7-32 when scoring less than 3 runs...Kory Casto is 4- for-9 (.444) has a pinch hitter this season wtih two doubles, a homer and five RBI.