Jason Heyward attacked by bees in the outfield, stung repeatedly

A swarm of bees descended on Sloan Park on Sunday during a Cactus League game between the Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners. The bees targeted Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward in the top of third inning and stung him more than 10 times in head and neck area.

Heyward kept moving around in centerfield where he was playing in place of Dexter Fowler, who suffered an injury earlier in the game and was removed. Heyward swatted at the bees with his glove and hat and even considered jumping over the centerfield wall at one point before encouraging umpires to continue play and get the inning over.

The game was delayed for 5 minutes and some fans in the outfield shielded themselves from the bees by hiding under blankets. Heyward remained in the contest. He came up in the bottom of the third inning and belted a home run off James Paxton. He finished the day 1-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI. The Mariners won the game 12-9

Got stung at least 20 times smh https://t.co/um47ptnE19

— jheytwotwo (@JasonHeyward) March 27, 2016

Swarms of bees at spring training games are nothing new. It has happened in the past but it’s not often that they attack a player on the field the way they did with Heyward.

Heyward and Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo were able to have a little fun with the incident after the fact. Heyward hitting a home run and Rizzo apparently predicting he would helped.

U called the homer after! 🐝🐝🐝 Good thing I’m not allergic @ARizzo44 pic.twitter.com/NDL60q4hjA

— jheytwotwo (@JasonHeyward) March 28, 2016

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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo