Borussia Dortmund made it six Bundesliga wins in a row by defeating Bayern Munich 2-0 Sunday to stay within three points of leaders Mainz, dpa reported.
Lucas Barrios struck in the 52nd minute and Nuri Sahin curled in a free-kick eight minutes later to leave champions Bayern in the bottom half of the table, 13 points behind Mainz.
Borussia have 18 points to keep in touch with Mainz who Saturday defeated Hoffenheim 4-2 to equal a Bundesliga record by winning their opening seven games.
Five points now separate Dortmund from third-placed Hanover, while Bayer Leverkusen moved fourth a further point behind after a 2-2 draw with Werder Bremen.
Louis van Gaal gave striker Mario Gomez his first start of the season, leaving Miroslav Klose and Ivica Olic on the bench, as Bayern sought to shrug off their indifferent start to the season.
Bayern began well but after a first half without a clear chance for either side, Barrios broke the deadlock for Dortmund with a deflected shot from 15 metres after the visitors failed to clear a throw-in.
Turkish midfielder Sahin then curled a free-kick past the Bayern wall from some 20 metres out following a handling offence by substitute Martin Demichelis.
Olic immediately came on for defender Edson Braafheid, but it was Dortmund who again came close to scoring when Barrios cracked a shot against the post.
VfB Stuttgart meanwhile had captain Matthieu Delpierre sent off as they slumped to a 2-1 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt to stay bottom of the table.
Theofanis Gekas opened the scoring with a header in the 18th minute and Brazilian defender Chris headed the second following a corner in the 68th minute.
Delpierre was shown a red card in the 84th minute for a late tackle on Patrick Ochs before a close-range goal from Pavel Pogrebniak a minute later gave Stuttgart late hope.
In a frantic closing phase, Cacau thought he had equalized with two minutes remaining but the goal was disallowed, while Frankfurt's Halil Altintop shot wide in front of an open goal.
It was the sixth defeat in seven games for Christian Gross's side, who have three points, one adrift of Schalke 04. Frankfurt move into mid-table with nine points.
Leverkusen and Bremen shared four goals in the day's other game.
Patrick Helmes gave Leverkusen a 16th-minute lead, only for Bremen to level through Hugo Almeida eight minutes after the break and take the lead nine minutes later with a Marko Marin goal.
But the home side rescued a point with 12 minutes remaining when Eren Derdiyok dribbled past three Bremen defenders to fire a shot into the net from just inside the area.