NEW YORK -- The Mets are still paying James McCann … to beat them.

The Orioles’ catcher -- whom the O's acquired from the Mets on Dec. 21, 2022, for a player to be named later and cash -- slugged Baltimore to victory against his old team on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

McCann crushed a two-run homer into the second deck in left field off Mets starter Jose Quintana -- taking his time to admire the blast before starting his home run trot -- and led the way with three RBIs in the Orioles' 9-5 win over New York, which evened the series ahead of Wednesday's rubber match. With the Yankees' 9-5 loss to the Guardians, Baltimore moved back into first place in the American League East by a half-game over New York.

So was it safe to say McCann enjoyed his return to New York?

"I did," McCann said with a laugh. "It was a good game."

Quintana signed with the Mets on Dec. 9, 2022, as part of the big-spending offseason that led New York to trade McCann to Baltimore a few weeks later, a deal that gave the Mets Competitive Balance Tax relief -- but also involved them agreeing to pay $19 million of the $24 million remaining on McCann's contract for ‘23 and ‘24.

Tuesday's game marked McCann's first at Citi Field since he left the Mets. New York is covering about three-quarters of McCann's salary for this season. The player it got back for him, Luis De La Cruz, has never played a game for the Mets’ organization. And McCann -- in addition to mentoring Adley Rutschman, the reason the Orioles brought him aboard in the first place -- is now winning games against the team that traded him away.

"I'll say, I didn't know what I was going to feel like when I got back here," McCann said. "And I have good memories here. My family loved our time here. My tenure, individually, didn't go the way that I anticipated or expected. Things happen for a reason. And I'm at peace with that."

McCann signed a four-year, $40.6 million contract as a free agent to come to New York on Dec. 15, 2020. But although he had been an All-Star with the White Sox in 2019, he never found that success with the Mets.

McCann batted just .220 with 13 home runs and a .610 OPS in 182 games over two seasons as a Met before he was traded to the Orioles, including a .211 batting average, six home runs and a .589 OPS in 96 games at Citi Field.

"Do I wish that things would have gone differently? Absolutely," McCann said. "I wish that it would have been the opposite. But it wasn't, and there's nothing I can do about that now."

Except hammer the Mets, that is.

Anthony Santander also homered for Baltimore on Tuesday, a two-run shot that opened the scoring in the first inning. The 40-homer milestone continues to draw closer for the All-Star slugger, who's up to 37 on the season. But it was McCann's homer in the fourth inning that broke the game open, pushing Baltimore's lead to 6-1. He even earned some boos from the Mets fans attending his revenge game.

"I love watching our offense hit the ball around the yard," said O's starter Dean Kremer, who pitched six innings of one-run ball in a much-needed effort on a day the Orioles lost Zach Eflin to the injured list with right shoulder inflammation.

McCann's home run wasn't just eye candy for his pitcher; it ended up proving critical to the Orioles keeping their lead after the Mets rallied in the eighth inning. After Gunnar Henderson's AL-high 19th error at shortstop, New York scored four times -- capped by J.D. Martinez's three-run homer -- to close the gap to 7-5.

It's not the first time McCann has tormented the Mets since the trade, either. In his first game facing the Mets as an Oriole, on Aug. 4, 2023, in Baltimore, McCann went 3-for-3 with five RBIs in a 10-3 win for the O's.

"I think that any time you're facing a team that you previously played for, there's always a little extra [motivation]," manager Brandon Hyde said. "I know that that homer felt good. It was a beautiful swing. It ended up being a huge hit for us."