Michael King wanted to give the Yankees “flexibility” for the future by showing what he could do as a starter over the final month-plus of this season.

Instead he is doing his best to force their hand.

King’s first five starts as a member of the rotation were encouraging, but he took his game to another level on Wednesday night, striking out 13 over seven innings of one-run ball in a 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays in The Bronx.

While the Yankees are not playing for much as a team — and looked that way in another quiet offensive effort against Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman — King is pitching for a potential spot in the 2024 rotation. And against a potent Blue Jays lineup that is fighting for playoff positioning, he was dominant.

“I think he’s staking a pretty good claim for [a rotation spot],” manager Aaron Boone said. “It was a pretty special performance by him. Unfortunately we couldn’t mount anything.”

Despite King’s strong start, the Yankees (76-76) lost a third straight game as they inched toward officially being eliminated from the AL wild-card race — potentially as soon as Friday — now eight games out with 10 games left in the season.

King’s 13 strikeouts, seven innings and 101 pitches were all career highs.

He did not walk a batter, scattering five hits and pounding the strike zone early and often.

The 13 strikeouts were also the most by any Yankees pitcher this season. King struck out the side in the first inning and again in the sixth, both times on 14 pitches.

He got some occasional help from home-plate umpire Lance Barrett’s strike zone — so did Gausman, which led to Boone’s ejection in the second inning — but mostly racked up the whiffs on his own.

In six starts since joining the rotation, King has pitched to a 1.27 ERA with 42 strikeouts and four walks across 28 ¹/₃ innings.

Three of his last four starts have come against playoff teams.

“I feel like I’ve continued to evolve and I’m hoping that the audition is successful,” King said.

As currently constructed, the Yankees have Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon as locks in the rotation with Clarke Schmidt also likely nabbing a spot after a solid first season as a full-time starter.

Nestor Cortes figures to fill another spot, assuming he enters the year healthy after a rotator cuff strain derailed this season.

The Yankees are also expected to be in on Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto this winter.

Conceding that how the offseason plays out could change things, Boone said before Wednesday’s game that “I’m looking at [King] as a starter.”

He certainly looked the part against the Blue Jays (85-67), who blew it open once King left the game.

Tommy Kahnle walked four batters in the eighth inning to force in a run, with Ian Hamilton walking in another before giving up three more runs in the ninth.

It was an all-too-familiar end result, with the Yankees creeping closer to having their season officially declared dead, even if it has been coming for some time now.

From that aspect, King called the season overall “a wake-up call.”

“As much as we’ve stuck to our routines, there are things we need to do differently to be better next year,” King said. “We’re not at the top of the AL East. There are awesome teams in this division; we’ve known that the last few years. I think we kind of expected to still be at the top. Now you got Baltimore and Tampa way apart from us. The team we just played today now separating themselves. It’s not a fun position to be in. We don’t like being here. I’m hoping all of us don’t like being here and we’ll make that transition.”

The Yankees’ only offense came on Austin Wells’ first career home run, a solo blast to the second deck in right field in the bottom of the ninth.