What caused the unusual delay of game in Phillies at New York Mets series opener Monday?

If you're curious to what brought the Mets and Phillies' series opener to a brief halt Monday night, here's the explanation.

In the top of the fifth inning at Citi Field, Alec Bohm grounded into a routine double play but what followed was not routine. The Phillies third baseman caught the attention of his first base coach Paco Figueroa, then gestured toward centerfield

There was an issue raised with a pair of parabolic microphones that flanked both sides of the batter's eye in center field. Bohm took issue with the mic in right-center that appeared to glow a brighter white over Mets southpaw reliver Jose Castillo during Bohm's at-bat.

The umpires came together in the infield and after a discussion, the large dish-shaped microphones, which had been in place for several years according to SportsNet New York, were then removed before the Phillies' next at-bat.

After throwing a collection of warm-up pitches amid the 14-minute delay, Castillo induced an inning-ending ground ball to second base, much to the merriment of the impatient fans at Citi Field.

The delay wasn't as kind to Phillies starter Christoph Sanchez, who had no-hit the Mets through the first three innings but allowed the home team to break a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the fifth then allowed two more runs (one earned) in the sixth before hitting the showers.

The Phils bullpen was tattooed for another seven runs in the 13-3 loss, which pulled the Mets within six games of the National League East-leading Phillies.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Phillies-Mets gets strange delay; here's what happened at Citi Field