Chicago ? I don’t mean to trivialize the plight of those Russian sailors who were down to their last few hours of oxygen before their submarine was cut free from undersea cables two months ago.

But that’s how the last month felt with the Chicago White Sox, didn’t it? Breathing was labored, and nobody knew if help was on the way. It felt very closed in around here. And let’s be honest: Some of you were starting to smell a tad gamy.

So before the White Sox begin the playoffs against the Red Sox (get kooky and predict a Sox victory), treat yourself to a deep breath, if for no other reason than because you can.

The White Sox open their American League Division Series against the defending world champions Tuesday on the South Side, which gives you a whole day to obsess over the matchups and-this being star-crossed Chicago-to collect all the worst-case scenarios and trade them with your similarly concerned friends.

It’s not going to be easy from here on out, but then you and the Sox know that, having been through a September you’d rather not remember. If you think about it, nothing has come easily for the Sox this season, not even when they were winning at a .660 clip. There were too many one-run victories to make anyone think this was a juggernaut.

But still, for all the hand-wringing and for all the can’t-bear-to-watch-this utterances, this is a team that won 99 games in the regular season. Ninety-nine victories.

I’ll repeat what I’ve been saying for a month: Outside of New York, where a Yankees loss in June is cause in the tabloids for air-raid sirens and the donning of hazmat suits, I’ve never seen so much angst over a team that led its division wire to wire and had the second-most victories in team history.

Ninety-nine victories for a team that overachieved at the start, underachieved toward the end and is now dying to prove itself all over again. Wonderful.

OK, Sox fans, you’ve had your moment of appreciation. Now what?

Besides a five-game winning streak, there are reasons to be confident as the Sox prepare to play Boston, most of them having to do with pitching. A playoff rotation of Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland – not bad. Not bad at all.

The Sox’s middle-relief puzzle could be solved by the injection of starters Orlando Hernandez and Brandon McCarthy into the bullpen. Let El Duque’s postseason mastery come out of the pen – less damage there if he fails – and let the 22-year-old McCarthy’s nerves be less an issue than if he were a starter.

Yes, the closer situation is shaky. Yes, the hitting continues to be suspect. But as I said in July, the onus won’t be on the Sox hitters in the playoffs. It will be on pitching and defense, and thus batters should be loose and free-swinging.

Oh, and the Red Sox’s pitching is a disaster right now, from the starting rotation to the closer.

Goats will emerge from this series. We don’t know who or when. We do know why: because these are the Red Sox and the White Sox, and things happen.

We know one other thing: Sox manager Ozzie Guillen will be a full-blown national star if his team goes anywhere in these playoffs. I know my media brethren from around the country, I think like my media brethren, I appreciate my media brethren-and they are a quote-starved, angle-desperate bunch. Trust me, Ozzie will have them spilling tears of joy at their newfound bounty.

The Sox can do some serious damage, starting Tuesday.