By Morris Phillips

King Felix’s kingdom? Yup, it starts in the visiting bullpen area at the soggy Oakland Coliseum and extends all the way to the pitching mound on the field to the West and on to the warning track to the East.

And yes, the Mariners’ ace was king of all he surveyed on Saturday, besting the A’s 3-1 and keeping the Oakland bats quiet until Jed Lowrie’s solo shot leading off the ninth. Felix Hernandez beat the A’s for the 16^th time in his career and he’s now gone 10 consecutive starts at the Coliseum without experiencing a loss.

“We could have been hitting for a month straight, and today it wouldn’t have mattered,” Lowrie said. “It was his day.”

“The first seven innings, that might have been the best we’ve seen him,” manager Bob Melvin said.

According to Melvin, Hernandez’ fastball had extra life. Brandon Moss concurred with Melvin on Hernandez’s fastball, and saw a few too many nasty changeups as well. John Jaso caught King Felix’s perfect game in 2012 and he too highlighted Hernandez’s high velocity changeup.

And Felix himself said that he feels better at the beginning of a season than he ever has previously.

My pitches were looking good all day long,” Hernandez said. “I could throw them all for strikes.”

Dustin Ackley broke up a scoreless game in the fifth with a majestic two-run shot into the right field bleachers. Two batters, later Abraham Almonte homered off A’s starter Dan Straily as well. Straily came out smoking, striking out seven in first 3 1/3 innings. But this was the wrong day to be merely solid as a starting pitcher when matched against Hernandez.

This could have been a day for the A’s to fold their tents as another member of the AL West put their expensive, talented players on display. But after Lowrie homered in the ninth, Moss singled and moved to second on Hernandez’ wild pitch. Cespedes followed with a wicked shot that landed just foul beyond the left field foul pole. Two pitches later, Hernandez got Cespedes to fly out.

The A’s had another promising rally short circuit in the fourth when Cespedes struck out to end the inning with a pair of baserunners aboard. The A’s were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position.

On Sunday, the A’s turn to Sonny Gray to attempt to capture the rubber game of what is now only a three-game series.   Erasmo Ramirez will pitch for the Mariners.

NOTES: The grounds crew worked overnight to restore the field to a workable condition after the snafu regarding the faulty weather report and the decision to go without an infield tarp on Thursday night left the field to wet to play.  After going 16 seasons without a rainout the A’s had three in one week, including the scheduled spring training meeting with the Giants last Saturday.