Mario Gomez scored a hat trick in a 5-1 win for Bayern Munich at home to Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Munich climbed to third, 14 points behind leader Borussia Dortmund, which was held to 1-1 by visiting Stuttgart.
Gomez was the league's joint topscorer with 15 goals. His goals came after Arjen Robben - making his first appearance at home for eight months after recovering from injury - opened the scoring at the end of the first half with his first of the season. The Dutch winger received a wonderful crossfield pass from Thomas Mueller, smartly rounded the advancing goalkeeper, and stroked the ball into the unguarded net with his right foot.
Gomez doubled the lead at the beginning of the second - to equal the 86 goals scored for Bayern by watching club president Uli Hoeness - but Jan Moravek pulled a goal back for Kaiserslautern against the run of play following a defensive error from Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Gomez then went two better than Hoeness before Mueller completed Bayern's spree in the 90th minute.
Elsewhere, Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a late equalizer for Stuttgart at Dortmund. The Russian struck a powerful shot to the top right hand corner after being set up by a clever back-flick from Zdravo Kuzmanovic. It left Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp fuming on the sideline.
His side had missed a number of opportunities to increase the lead taken through rising star Mario Goetze's first-half goal.
Nuri Sahin helped set up the 18-year-old's goal, when he flicked a pass from Mats Hummels first time into the path of Kevin Grosskreutz. The attacking midfielder crossed for the advancing Goetze to control the ball with his left before placing the ball with his right past goalkeeper Sven Ulreich.
Dortmund had a penalty appeal turned down early in the second half after a clumsy challenge on Goetze, leading to ironic laughter from Klopp on the sideline.
Grosskreutz was then unable to direct a header under the bar following a floated pass over the defense from Sahin.
Raul Gonzalez scored the only goal for Schalke at second-place Hannover, where he met a Lukas Schmitz cross in the penalty box in the first half. It was the Spaniard's 10th goal of the season.
Hannover should have equalized in the second half when Didier Ya Konan set the ball back for Mohammed Abdellaoue, who blasted his shot from 16 meters (yards) to the right.
Manuel Neuer twice came to Schalke's rescue, the Germany goalkeeper denying Sergio Pinto and Emanuel Pogatetz in quick succession.
The win moved Felix Magath's side up to 10th with two more points than Wolfsburg which broke a streak of seven draws in a row to finally win at Mainz.
Simon Kjaer headed in the only goal from a Diego free kick to ease the pressure on coach Steve McClaren.
Freiburg drew 1-1 with visiting Nuremberg, with Julian Schieber scoring a stunning equalizer for the visitors. Schieber volleyed a thunderous effort from the right edge of the penalty area in off the underside of the crossbar.
He hit the crossbar with a shot from the left five minutes later.
