On this day two years ago, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was on the hot seat. Now, he’s in the National League Championship Series.

In 2021, the Diamondbacks had a 52-110 record, 55 games behind NL West Division champion Los Angeles. This year, an 84-78 mark was 16 games behind the division-winning Dodgers but good enough to claim a wild-card berth in baseball’s expanded playoffs.

Then a funny thing happened. Arizona swept the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers in two games and destroyed the Dodgers in three, outscoring the 104-game winners, 19-6.

When things went south in 2020 and 2021, it helped that Lovullo had produced three winning seasons when he took over in Arizona, including a 93-69 mark his first year in 2017.

Now, he needs four wins over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship Series to become the seventh manager to go from losing 100 games to directing a team in the World Series. Four of the previous men to do it won it all.

Two other managers went from losing 100 to The Fall Classic. John McNamara lost 102 with the 1974 San Diego Padres and won 95 to guide to Boston Red Sox to the 1986 Series. Jim Leyland won it all with the 1997 Florida Marlins, then lost 108 games a year later after ownership traded away stars in cost-cutting moves. He then took the Detroit Tigers to the World Series in 2006 and 1016, but lost each time.

Those guys were fortunate to get another chance. Most 100-game losers are written off and seldom get to work with better players in a better situation.

Several formerly successful skippers later lost 100 or more, including Hall of Famers Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher and Sparky Anderson. Management is more willing to give a guy with a winning past more leeway – or hire him in hopes that he can “work his magic,” with so-so players. Clearly, that doesn’t work all the time.

Hall of Famer careers have started poorly, too. Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson hit .178, .196, and.238, respectively in their first extended big-league time. Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm didn’t pitch in the majors until age 29. Sandy Koufax had a 36-40 record over his first six seasons and 129-47 (.733) the rest of his career.

Joe Torre was not a success in his first go-round as manager. He went 286-420 (.405) in 1977-81 with the Mets. In 24 years with four other teams, Torre had a 2,040-1,577 (.564) and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Tom Kelly was considered a fine manager in Minnesota, where he led the Twins to World Series victories in 1987 and again in 1991. But Kelly finished his 16 years at the helm 104 games under .500.

Connie Mack’s record is strange: He won nine pennants and five World Series but finished 217 games under .500. He managed the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 149-134 mark in 1894-96, then had his greatest highs and lows in a remarkable 50 years as Philadelphia Athletics manager. Of course, it helped that he owned the team, so he didn’t fire himself when things went sour. Over his final 17 seasons, Mack lost 90 or more games 10 times to finish with a career record of 3,731-3,948.

Mack’s under .500 record is the third-worst in history. Jimmie Wilson, who managed woeful Cubs and Phillies teams from 1934 until 1944, never came close to a winning season and was 242 games under .500. John McCloskey, in only five years, was a combined -227 in the 1890s with the NL’s Louisville Colonels and early 1900s with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The top 14 managers in career games over .500 are all in the Hall of Fame, led by the legendary John McGraw at +815 from 1899 until 1933. Those 14 won a total of 29 World Series and went to the post-season a combined 92 times.

No. 15 on the list is headed there, too, especially if he can make a return trip to the World Series. Dusty Baker of the Houston Astros is +321 in the regular season over 26 years with five teams. A year ago, he finally won a World Series when the Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.