St. Louis ? Chris Young was ready for anything. Now, the Kansas City Royals’ pitcher gets an extra day to do his homework.

Well before Sunday’s game against the Cardinals was postponed by rain, Young had asked for scouting reports on both St. Louis and Milwaukee. Having his next start pushed back to Tuesday, with Edinson Volquez starting the series opener today in Milwaukee, was really no big deal.

“Look, it’s life,” Young said. “It’s part of the job and what we do. It’s not the first time it’s happened and I hope it’s not the last.”

Manager Ned Yost said juggling the rotation would allow Young time to focus on the Brewers.

“To have that extra day to watch video and prepare, it will be cramming a little bit like a college test or something,” Young said. “But it allows (Volquez) to stay on his natural program.”

Young got ready to pitch twice, doing some long tossing before the initial start time and then again about two hours later. The game was postponed after a delay of 2 hours, 31 minutes.

“I still the whole time thought we were going to play at some point,” Young said.

No makeup date has been determined for the final game of the season series. The teams have two mutual open dates, July 23 and Aug. 4.

“I was willing to wait as long as we could,” Yost said. “Those off days are precious and we’re here and I liked the matchup.”

But he’d also seen the forecasts that called for brief windows of calm between showers most of the day.

“I personally don’t want to put Chris Young on the mound and let him pitch two innings and the game gets banged eventually anyway,” Yost said. “Your pitcher is done.

“A 45-minute window is not going to get you five innings.”

The Cardinals lead the season series 3-2 and outscored the Royals 7-2 the first two games of this three-game set.

The Tuesday starting spot had been undetermined with Joe Blanton the probable pitcher. Now, Blanton will be the fallback in case Yordano Ventura, who left Friday’s start after three innings due to right hand weakness, has an issue on Wednesday.

The Cardinals will stick with John Lackey, the scheduled starter Sunday, today against Minnesota.

The rainout sent home a third straight sellout crowd for the series matching teams with the best record in the National and American leagues.

The postponement is the first at Busch Stadium since May 14, 2014, against the Cubs.

The Royals lead the American League with a 34-25 record and .576 winning percentage and have a 11/2-game lead on Minnesota in the AL Central.

The Cardinals are 41-21 overall and 24-7 at home, both major-league bests. They’ve won three in a row and 14 of 19, with pitchers posting a 2.13 ERA, entering a four-game home and home series with the Minnesota Twins starting tonight in St. Louis.

Yost was true to his word and had resisted shaking up the lineup even though his team has scored two or fewer runs in 12 of the last 17 games.

The Royals were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position the first two games and are 5-for-33 the first five games of a trip that ends in Milwaukee.