There aren’t many cheers now, no grand entrance.

There isn’t much noise, actually, even on the way out. That’s probably a good thing, though.

There’s anonymity in middle relief, whether a pitcher performs well or not. Of course, if they’re bad, they’re remembered. Sort of. Conversation invariably turns to the starting pitcher or the back end of the bullpen, or the lineup or the manager. Those are the guys people know.

It’s why no one seems to have noticed that John Axford has returned to form.

Actually, if you look at the course of the entire season to date – 40 appearances – he was barely out of it.

He has not allowed a run in his last 23 games (20.1 innings), a stretch that began on May 15.

Since May 3 (27 games) he has posted a 0.76 earned run average and opponents are hitting .212 against him.

Go back even further. Since April 13 – the second week of the season – Axford has a 1.71 ERA.

Unfortunately for the 30-year-old, memories have remained long for some. Perhaps it’s why his frequently perfect appearances earn nothing more than light applause.

One could say the right-hander set the bar incredibly high through first 131 major league games. In that span, covering parts of three seasons, he allowed just 35 earned runs over 139 1/3 innings pitched while saving 71 games. He led the league in saves during the Brewers run to the National league Championship Series in 2011 and earned Cy Young and Most Valuable Player votes.

He slumped on several occasions in 2012 however, posting monthly earned run averages of 4.70 (April), 2.31 (May), 9.00 (June), 4.70 (July), 5.79 (August) and 2.93 (September and October) but was very good down the stretch as the Brewers climbed back into the wildcard race.

In his last 19 games, from Aug. 28 through Oct. 3, he held opponents to a .145 average with a 2.60 ERA and converted 15 of 16 save opportunities in that stretch. He finished the season with 35 saves.

You would think there would be some capital saved up, or earned back, but Axford found out quickly that wasn’t the case after allowing nine runs in 3 1/3 innings in his first four appearances of the year, three of which came at Miller Park.

"That’s just something I wasn’t used to," he said of the crowd’s reaction not only then, but also to his appearances immediately afterward. "You hear a lot of boos when you come to the field before you even pitch, your name’s announced, you hear it, coming off the field, you hear it. It was tough. It’s tough to hear that from a fan base that you thought was behind you at some point. I can definitely understand where they’re at. It’s ‘what have you done for me lately?’

"Obviously a lot of them remember the struggles that I had last year but at the same time, it would have been great to have the support all the way through. I knew what I could do and what I could accomplish, so it was just a matter of knowing that and doing what did do and hopefully change their minds once again. Hopefully that’s what I’m doing, that they realize to not just give up on me so when my name’s announced they can cheer once again."

Those April games seem like a lifetime ago at this point in the season, but they are recalled as quickly as the May 1 outing where he gave up four runs (three earned) and a blown save in Pittsburgh on May 14, an outing that inspired an unusual amount of vitriol – even for Axford’s sensibilities.

It’s what inspired the following tweet:.

This is my job and I care immensely about it..But it's also a game! A GAME! A game that I love and will always continue to work hard for it. — John Axford (@JohnAxford) May 15, 2013

"I always just find it ridiculous when people feel like they can attack you in that sense," Axford said. "That night, it was just – I was getting death threats and stuff. I like going on Twitter and seeing fan’s comments and I like to respond to them and I like talking with them, that’s why I’m on there a lot of the time.

"So when I go on there you have to through your feed and read things because you’re trying to actually respond to certain fans and I was reading some of these things and I’m like, this is ridiculous. This is just over the top ridiculous now, so that’s when I actually did say something. So, the social media side of it doesn’t bother me, but that night in particular, it was like, OK, you’re all being really dumb right now."

Because the Brewers could not complete the comeback and make the playoffs last year, and the team lost early and often this season, the poor outings are what have been remembered.

They couldn’t have necessarily been prevented, however, even though he knew something wasn’t right going into the season – especially when he hit 89 miles per hour on the radar gun in his last exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox.

"But nobody said anything or noticed because I think I got three outs," he said. "Three up, three down and it was no big deal. I also threw one 96, but that was just the variation and kind of the way thing went and I couldn’t figure out why or how. I felt great."

He hesitates to call it a "dead arm," because he didn’t feel any different, but after those first four regular season games he and pitching coach Rick Kranitz and bullpen coach Lee Tunnell went back to the film and saw a slight adjustment in his posture that needed to be corrected.

Simply, he began standing up. It was a tiny flaw Tunnell had changed back in 2009, and its recurrence flattened out his breaking ball and grounded his fastball.

"Maybe those four outings were a blessing because they noticed something right away," Axford said. "They noticed something was changing and got me right back on board again. Obviously you don’t want things to start off that poorly.

"You don’t want to give up those amount of runs, those amount of home runs, blow a save on Opening Day or any of those things, but at the same time it made me realize that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to and I needed to get back on track to where I was and where I have been the last few years. The change was made relatively quickly, and he’s been stellar ever since."

For now, though, Francisco Rodriguez is the closer, but the free agent-to-be will likely be elsewhere by the end of the month. It’s a spot Axford wants to get back to, but knows what he’s doing now has him performing like his old self.

"You don’t want to change anything if it’s already working right now," he admitted. "And, the way things are working at the back end of the bullpen, the way Jim (Henderson) has thrown the ball and closed out games this year, the way Frankie has, it’s been fantastic. So I’m where I need to be to help those guys out and get the ball to them in the eighth or the ninth between the two of them.

"For me, I just want to keep working at what I’ve been doing and keep working hard and keep getting the outs I’ve been getting and hopefully keep our team in the ballgame so we can eventually win at the end."