Dodgers’ Chris Capuano has impressive outing against White Sox

Chris Capuano fell short Sunday of becoming one of the few big league pitchers to reach nine wins this season.

But not by much.

Capuano (8-2) struck out 12 Chicago White Sox batters while giving up one run in a season-high eight innings. The left-hander lowered his earned-run average to 2.71 from 2.87.

As the Dodgers rallied for a 2-1 win in 10 innings, Capuano had no decision and reliever Ronald Belisario earned the win.

The 12 strikeouts were the most for Capuano since Aug. 26, 2011, when he struck out a career-high 13 for the New York Mets against the Atlanta Braves.

“I felt really good the first two months of the season and then, the last couple of weeks, struggled with some mechanics,” Capuano said. “I felt like I had a lot of trouble putting the ball where I want.”

But on Sunday, he said, “I felt much better with the location of my pitches.”

Guerra improving

Javy Guerra pulled down an elastic, sleeve-type bandage and bared his right knee to show two scars, each smaller than a dime, on each side of the knee.

“I’m thankful we got it done,” the reliever said of the arthroscopic surgery he had on the sore knee June 5, a procedure he said lasted less than 15 minutes.

Guerra, 26, originally hurt the knee trying to get out of the way of a comebacker that hit his face April 28. The right-hander later struggled and lost his closing role to Kenley Jansen.

His recovery from surgery was expected to take six weeks, but Guerra and the Dodgers hope the Texan will return sooner.

“He’s bounced back quickly,” Manager Don Mattingly said. Although there’s no timetable for his return, “they talked about six weeks and I don’t think we’re going to need that,” Mattingly said.

Guerra, who said that before the surgery his knee hurt doing such ordinary things as climbing stairs, said, “We don’t want to rush it, but at the same time it feels good.”

In addition to workouts aimed at rebuilding the knee’s strength, Guerra said he’s also been throwing on flat ground.

Mattingly said it helped that Guerra missed only a few days of throwing and working out. “It’s not like he sits around for 10 days and then we decide to do something,” Mattingly said. “It was a quick decision and I think it’s kept him going.”

He added that Guerra might join the club when it travels to San Francisco for a three-game series starting June 25.

Short hops

Once-obscure minor leaguer Elian Herrera had three more hits Sunday, his ninth multi-hit game of the season. ... Mattingly, who was ejected in Sunday’s Father’s Day game, also was ejected in the Mother’s Day game May 13. ... Matt Kemp (left hamstring) and Mark Ellis (left leg surgery) will travel with the Dodgers to Oakland for a series with the Athletics starting Tuesday as they keep working toward coming off the disabled list, Mattingly said.

james.peltz@latimes.com