Stephen Strasburg’s rookie season has been one of many firsts: his first major league win, his first appearance on late night television, and, for many, the first time they’ve been excited about Nationals baseball in some time. Now we can add his first trip to the disabled list to those experiences. Sporting some serious kid gloves, the Nationals placed Strasburg on the 15-day DL today, retroactive to July 22. (Not a baseball fanatic? This means that Strasburg can’t play for the Nationals again until August 7; it also frees up space on the 25-man roster for someone to take his place — in this case left-handed pitcher Scott Olsen.) It looks like the shoulder inflammation which caused Strasburg to be scratched at the last minute from Tuesday night’s game against Atlanta scared the front office enough: Strasburg won’t throw a ball for three or four days, and then he’ll be re-evaluated. For what it’s worth, Strasburg said this morning that he was “feeling great already.” Those of you who had bought tickets for Sunday’s clash with the Phillies (for which promotional materials had pretty much all revolved around the young phenom) will have to settle for either another Miguel Batista effort or a returning Jason Marquis. (Somewhere, a Phillies fan is smiling.)