San Diego — Spending a weekend in paradise can do plenty to raise your spirits, especially when you have hosts as accommodating as the San Diego Padres.

Just ask the Braves, who broke out with 16 hits and crushed the Padres 12-3 on a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon at Petco Park, clinching a needed series win before heading to the All-Star break.

AP (ENLARGE)

Brian McCann slides safely into third base. The Braves catcher would later score as the Braves put together a five-run sixh inning.

BY THE NUMBERS • Box score • Standings • Stats [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Jorge Campillo (4-4) pitched six strong innings for the win in front of dozens of family members and friends from nearby Tijuana, his hometown.

The reeling Padres lost 10 of 11 home games before facing the Braves, but that little fact wasn't going to dampen the clubhouse mood. The Braves will take a 2-1 series win and try to build on it.

They are a disappointing 45-50 at the All-Star break, in fourth place and still 6-1/2 games behind National League East leader Philadelphia.

"Good way to end the first half," said Bobby Cox, who didn't realize it was his 2,300th win as a major-league manager until a reporter congratulated him. "Well, thank you. Twenty-three hundred means I'm getting older and older, hanging around."

When a TV reporter said to him, "But still winning," Cox said, "We should be winning more. We should be winning a lot more games."

All-Star catcher Brian McCann went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and his 18th homer Sunday and has reached base in seven consecutive plate appearances. He was hit in the right wrist by a pitch in the five-run sixth inning, then homered in the seventh inning and hit an RBI double in the ninth.

McCann and his wife, Ashley, caught a charter flight to New York Sunday night with fellow All-Star Chipper Jones and Braves head trainer Jeff Porter, who'll serve as the NL team trainer for Tuesday's game at Yankee Stadium.

"We have to start winning series," said McCann. "We lost the last series, but we won this one, which is good. And we've got Washington coming up after the break, which is going to be a huge series for us."

Cox called the season's first half "kind of a tragedy, with the injuries. We've played as hard as we could. We should have won some more ballgames. We lost some late and all that. But overall, we've had some great surprises. Campillo's one of them. Just been brilliant. Great find for us."

Campillo allowed five hits and two runs and received long overdue run support from the Braves, who had scored one or no runs while he was in four of his previous five starts.

The right-hander bought 40 tickets for family members —"I probably won't have anything in my next paycheck," he said, laughing — and gave them and about 40 other friends plenty to cheer. He left with a 9-2 lead after fouling a ball off his left foot.

Campillo had no discoloration or swelling after the game and said he'd be ready for his next start.

Rookie shortstop Brent Lillibridge added three hits for the Braves, who had four players with multiple hits. Filling in for sore-shouldered Yunel Escobar, Lillibridge had five hits in the past two games to raise his average from .133 to .237.

The Braves are five or more games behind three East teams — Philadelphia, New York and Florida — but said they feel better about their chances for a post-break run after a big output Sunday against left-hander Randy Wolf (6-9), who was tagged for six runs in five-plus innings.

"If we keep swinging the bats like we did today in the second half, it's gonna be pretty easy [to make a run]," Jones said. "I think the starters have done a good job keeping us in games lately. You've got to bring all facets of the game every day. You can't take days off in any facet of the game.

"If our starters don't show up, if our defense doesn't show up, if our offense doesn't show up, we're going to continue to be mired right where we are. Get more consistency out of those areas, we'll win more ballgames."

Jones (0-for-2) was the only Braves starting position player who didn't have a hit Sunday, though he had two walks and a sacrifice fly as his majors-leading average slipped two points, to .376.