Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrik Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus all scored in the final 12 minutes as Borussia Dortmund left it late to beat Schalke 3-0 in the Ruhr derby at the Westfalenstadion.
After being frustrated over and over again by Schalke goalkeeper Timon Wellenreuther, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke the deadlock in the 78th minute before, a minute later, Henrikh Mkhitaryan sealed victory.
Marco Reus added a third as Dortmund gave a more realistic look to the result of a one-sided Revierderby.
Bayer Leverkusen built on their midweek Champions League win over Atletico Madrid by beating struggling Freiburg 1-0 at the BayArena.
Simon Rolfes scored the only goal of the game as Roger Schmidt's men got back to winning ways to move above both Augsburg and Schalke into fourth place.
Defeat saw Freiburg slip into the bottom two, where they join Baden-Wurttemberg rivals Stuttgart for at least the next seven days.
A last-gasp Salomon Kalou strike earned Hertha Berlin all three points and moved them out of the bottom three thanks to a 1-0 win over Augsburg.
The Ivory Coast international grabbed the only goal of the game with just two minutes left on the clock to dent Augsburg's hopes of qualifying for Europe next season and earn the Old Lady a precious victory.
The win took Hertha Berlin out of the bottom three for at least 24 hours, until Paderborn travel to Monchengladbach.
Hoffenheim moved to within two points of the top six as they downed struggling Mainz 2-0 in Sinsheim.
Kevin Volland and Eugen Polanski netted the goals for Markus Gisdol's men, who have slowly crept up on the top six and now have the chance of mixing with the likes of Schalke and Augsburg in the hunt for a place in Europe next season.
Mainz must look over their shoulders again after failing to build on their win from last weekend.
Alexander Meier scored twice to earn Eintracht Frankfurt a 2-1 win over Hamburg.
Meier opened the scoring with a 12th-minute penalty and, although Zoltan Stieber levelled on the stroke of half-time, Meier's 16th of the season in the 54th minute sealed the points.
Hannover and Stuttgart both had a man sent off as their at the Niedersachsenstadion finished in a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Christian Gentner gave bottom-placed Stuttgart the lead, but Lars Stindl levelled for the hosts.
Stindl was then given his marching orders, with Martin Harnik also seeing red as tempers flared at the death in Lower Saxony.