Marius Bulter scored a late goal for Schalke to give Bochum a 2-0 win and leave the bottom of the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Balter sealed the victory for the visitors in the 79th minute after Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Reimann scored in the 45th minute.
Reimann bundled the ball into his net as he attempted to clear it out of danger, involving his own defender Erhan Masovic. Masovic chose not to clear the ball and dropped it to the goalkeeper, an unfortunate result for Bochum.
Schalke’s second consecutive win in a six-match unbeaten run pulled the Gelsenkirchen-based club above Bochum on goal difference.
Both teams are on 19 points, including Hoffenheim and Stuttgart on four, while Hertha Berlin has 20 ahead of Sunday’s visit to Bayer Leverkusen.
Stuttgart hosts Bayern Munich late on Saturday with the visitors hoping to reclaim the league lead from Borussia Dortmund.
Leandro Barreiro’s first-half goal was enough for Mainz to beat Hoffenheim 1-0 and deal their fourth defeat in four matches since taking over as American coach Pellegrino Matarazzo.
Augsburg beat Werder Bremen 2–1, and there were scoreless draws between Union Berlin and Cologne, and Borussia Mönchengladbach and Freiburg.