In the opinion of the Fraternal Order of Farrell Firers, Red Sox manager John Farrell has nothing in common with Terry Francona, his old pal and the clubhouse leader in World Series rings with two to Farrell’s one.

But if Farrell ends up winning the AL East in a week or two, he will have something in common with another successful Sox manager of yore, Bill Carrigan. If things end up that way, the FOFF may lose its collective mind.

It has become common practice around Fenway Park for Farrell’s critics to blame something he did or did not do for every Red Sox loss, while claiming every victory — of which there have been quite a few the past two years — was gained despite his presence. This has often been the fate of the men who manage the Red Sox, because patrons from the Monster seats to the State Street Pavilion think they can manage better than whomever is actually doing it, because they once led their kid’s Pony League team to a three-game sweep of the Skowhegan Stoners or the Coventry Crabs.

The stat geeks find Farrell’s continued presence in the dugout especially onerous (not to mention odorous). A year ago, when the Sox won 93 games and the division title, several claimed Farrell had blown a dozen games with his sometimes head-scratching moves. If that were true, those Sox would have been 105-57 — which if you watched them play rather than just stared at your algorithms, you’d understand is a ridiculous notion.

By the way, he got no credit for any of the 93 wins, all of which happened apparently on days when he was either off or tied to a chair in his office.

This season has become more of the same. With 10 games to go, the Sox lead the AL East by three games over the Yankees and have won 88 times (which means if they split the final 10 Farrell would have another 93-win season). If they hold on to the division lead, they will become the first Sox team to ever win back-to-back AL East titles. The division, you may recall, was formed 48 years ago, so that’s a pretty good sample size.

If you go a bit deeper into the numbers — which is what the stat geeks always claim to be doing when the rest of us are asking, “Isn’t exit velocity overrated if the ball gets caught?” — what they’d find is no Red Sox manager since Carrigan in 1915-1916 won back-to-back division or league championships (the latter being how it was done back in the day, when life was simpler and stats were batting averages and RBI, and pitching victories were believed to say something significant about a pitcher, silly us). In Carrigan’s day, you didn’t have to prove your point twice. You won the American League pennant and went to the World Series, which he won twice including 1916 with a guy named Babe Ruth on the hill.

Carrigan was praised for his work when he retired to the banking business up in Maine after the ’16 Series. If John Farrell had Babe Ruth pitching instead of playing right field and the Sox won the Series, he’d be called an idiot. Different strokes for different folks.

Ruth won 23 games in 1916 (and 24 the next year) and was 4-1 against Walter Johnson, who they didn’t call “Big Train” because he had a Lionel set in the basement. Two of those wins were 1-0 and one came in a 13-inning complete game duel with Johnson. Ruth finished 23-12 with a 1.75 ERA and nine shutouts, and had a 14-inning complete game win in the World Series, the longest complete game in Series history. Dude could pitch.

Ruth went 24-13 with a 2.01 ERA and six shutouts the following season, but when World War I began taking players away a decision was made to allow him to become a regular — and the rest is history. Had Farrell been in Carrigan’s spikes at the time, the FOFF would have accused him of being blind to Ruth’s home run potential and, of course, costing the Sox games.

Farrell’s lack of popularity is understandable. He’s made headlines for having an affair with a local broadcaster and going deaf on a plane as David Price verbally assaulted Dennis Eckersley twice, then refused to apologize for it or try to compel Price to do so. Add to that his in-game managing issues and habit of answering most questions as if he was running for mayor of the clubhouse — and you don’t have the kind of guy many Sox fans warm up to.

But baseball is a bottom-line business. You win and you stay; you lose and you go. It is how it’s always been, and not even sabermetrics has altered that reality. So FOFFers, whether you like it or not, John Farrell has earned the right to a contract extension … unless, of course, he can mismanage enough games in the next 10 days to let the Yankees sneak by him, thus putting the Sox in a one-game wild card elimination.

Lose that one after being swept out of the playoffs a year ago by Francona’s Indians, and the FOFFs might finally get their wish. But if he avoids that fate, John Farrell will be here a while longer, finding ways to win even if you think he’s a loser.