About 7 minutes reading time.

🐾 Andrés Muñoz & Matilda – The Softest Heart in the Hardest Game

 J Barry  |    Oct 8th, 2025 5:59pm EDT

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The Seattle Mariners‘ most trusted pitcher doesn’t just throw a hundred — he throws love.

Andrés Muñoz — the All-Star Closer from Los Mochis, Sinaloa — has become one of baseball’s most electric relievers and, somehow, one of its most gentle souls.
Every night he takes the mound, his heart beats for two things — his country and his cat.

Her name is Matilda, a white Persian with a permanent scowl and a past she’s long outrun. She was left behind in Los Mochis until Andrés and his wife Wendy Almodóvar rescued her, nursed her back to health, and made her part of the family.

Now she travels with them, tucked into her carrier on road trips, collecting more flight miles than most rookies.

“She was dirty, in bad condition,” Muñoz said. “We rescued her. Now she has food, love — and the life she deserves.”

It’s the kind of story that explains everything about the man Seattle calls Moony.

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🧠 The Rescue Who Rescued Him Back

The life of a closer is psychological warfare — the art of breathing when 40,000 people are holding theirs.

Closers live in that blur between calculation and combustion, and the best ones, like Muñoz, make it look almost meditative.

Ask any Assistant to the Traveling Secretary — or anyone who’s watched the Mariners crisscross the map from Seattle to Maimi, Toronto to San Diego — and they’ll tell you: this life takes precision. Travel delays, time zones, adrenaline spikes. For most players, it frays the nerves. For Muñoz, it’s background noise. His calm looks almost feline — the same kind of unbothered grace you see when Matilda watches a fly and waits, patient, still, absolute.

He warms up like a cat stretching in the bullpen — unhurried, coiled, and impossibly calm. Persian cats are known for their patience, their wise whiskers, their ability to peer into your soul and then pounce without warning.

That’s Muñoz in the ninth — still, unreadable, and ready to snatch up a win in one smooth, clawed motion.

Unflummoxed by back-to-back nights, a three-hour delay, or the sudden shift from Seattle drizzle to meow’d-down Motown, he closes with feline focus. The mound is his windowsill. The roar is background noise.

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🌎 From Los Mochis to the Majors

Compassion runs deep in the Muñoz family.
His late grandfather, Don Clemente Apodaca Bernal, was famous in Los Mochis for rescuing stray dogs — twenty-six of them at one point — and teaching young Andrés that animals, like people, deserve dignity and patience.

That same grandfather also introduced him to baseball.
When Muñoz walked the red carpet at the 2025 All-Star Game, he wore a suit lined with Don Clemente’s photo close to his heart.

Fans filled the comments: “Puro Sinaloa.” “Qué orgullo.” “You sir are a lovely human being.”

It’s no wonder Muñoz now says that when he pitches, he feels his grandfather watching — maybe right next to Matilda.

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🐈 The Shelter and the Fans

In 2025, Muñoz teamed with Seattle Area Feline Rescue, donating Mariners experiences to raise funds for cat adoptions.
When he posted about it on Instagram, the comments poured in:

“Just another reason to cheer for this great player.” — @janicecirving
“The cat community appreciates your compassion.” — @therealpercythepersian
“Bendiciones @andresmunoz64 — los michis son lo mejor de adorables!!” — @karla.ruiz443

Then came the fans on r/Mariners, who turned Muñoz into a community icon:

“Throwing straight gas and holding straight cats. My heart might explode.” — u/whisar09
“Muñoz is my hero in so many ways.” — u/semipreciousss
“Didn’t expect to cry about baseball today.” — u/Less_University7400
“Saving cats and saving ballgames. What a dude.” — u/Cabal90

That’s community. That’s Baseball Without Borders.

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⚾ Nine Lives, Nine Innings

On October 7, 2025, Muñoz shut down the Detroit Tigers in the ninth, giving Seattle a 2–1 ALDS lead. Somewhere in the background, Matilda was almost certainly watching — tail twitching, purring in approval.

Now the series is tied 2–2, and everything comes down to Game 5.
At 4:40 p.m. EDT on Friday, October 10, Seattle’s season — and Matilda’s next travel leg — hang in the balance.

The Mariners will face Detroit’s ace Tarik Skubal, one of baseball’s fiercest left-handers — the kind of cat foe who makes every out a test of claws and calm — with a ticket to the American League Championship Series on the line.

If Muñoz takes the mound again, it’ll be with Seattle’s dream of toppling the Tigers alive — and the chance to move on to face either the Toronto Blue Jays or New York Yankees in the ALCS.

Born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa — the fertile breadbasket of Mexico — Muñoz grew up where baseball is as essential as grain and compassion as natural as rain. That mix of discipline and heart has carried him from the farm fields to the fiercest innings in the game.

Should Seattle advance, Matilda might want to keep her passport handy — the next stops could include Toronto to face Vlad Jr. and those pesky Blue Jays, maybe Los Angeles to challenge Ohtani and the Dodgers for the crown. Win there, and it’s parade time in Seattle — before one last flight south for the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Houston, where Muñoz will represent Team Mexico in Pool B.

And for cat fans following along — not every player at the Classic is as calm around felines as Muñoz.

Venezuela’s Eduardo Escobar once went hiss-terical when teammates pranked him with a fake kitten during the 2023 WBC, proving that not everyone in baseball has cat-like composure.

OMG THESE BREWERS FANS ARE DRESSED UP AS CATS BECAUSE EDUARDO ESCOBAR IS AFRAID OF CATS pic.twitter.com/DD249kbKVm

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 5, 2023

For Muñoz, caring sharpens the edge. Playing for his country perfects it.

Because every time he steps onto that mound, he’s not just pitching — he’s honoring family, love, and the animals that made him whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Andres Muñoz (@andresmunoz64)

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💚 Cat Power, World Power

Muñoz is a closer who saves games.
A husband who honors family.
A rescuer who reminds us that winning streaks runs on kindness.

And if you made it this far, baseball lover, consider being a cat person today.
Donate to your local shelter. Follow @andresmunoz64 and @matilda.munozz on Instagram.

Because in a sport defined by control and pressure, it’s the soft hearts that keep it human — and sometimes, feline.

World Baseball Network loves you.
Remember that, and you’ll never go broke.

✨ Cat Power! 🐾⚾ ✨

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Return to this article for updated photos, graphics, and Matilda’s postseason updates — and stay tuned for our upcoming Doggie Edition with a surprise MLB guest. Meow and Woof.