diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_physical_planner.c b/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_physical_planner.c
index dbdc8560a..fa016b0e2 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_physical_planner.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_physical_planner.c
@@ -167,7 +167,9 @@ static uint32 HashPartitionCount(void);
 /* Local functions forward declarations for task list creation and helper functions */
 static Job * BuildJobTreeTaskList(Job *jobTree,
 								  PlannerRestrictionContext *plannerRestrictionContext);
-static bool IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(RelationRestriction *relationRestriction);
+static bool IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(RelationRestriction *relationRestriction,
+									Bitmapset *distributedTables,
+									bool *outerPartHasDistributedTable);
 static void ErrorIfUnsupportedShardDistribution(Query *query);
 static Task * QueryPushdownTaskCreate(Query *originalQuery, int shardIndex,
 									  RelationRestrictionContext *restrictionContext,
@@ -2200,8 +2202,9 @@ QueryPushdownSqlTaskList(Query *query, uint64 jobId,
 	int minShardOffset = INT_MAX;
 	int prevShardCount = 0;
 	Bitmapset *taskRequiredForShardIndex = NULL;
-	Bitmapset *innerTableOfOuterJoinSet = NULL;
 	bool innerTableOfOuterJoin = false;
+	bool outerPartHasDistributedTable = false;
+	Bitmapset *distributedTableIndex = NULL;
 
 	/* error if shards are not co-partitioned */
 	ErrorIfUnsupportedShardDistribution(query);
@@ -2218,8 +2221,12 @@ QueryPushdownSqlTaskList(Query *query, uint64 jobId,
 	RelationRestriction *relationRestriction = NULL;
 	List *prunedShardList = NULL;
 
-	forboth_ptr(prunedShardList, prunedRelationShardList,
-				relationRestriction, relationRestrictionContext->relationRestrictionList)
+	/* First loop, gather the indexes of distributed tables
+	 *  this is required to decide whether we can skip shards
+	 *  from inner tables of outer joins
+	 */
+	foreach_declared_ptr(relationRestriction,
+						 relationRestrictionContext->relationRestrictionList)
 	{
 		Oid relationId = relationRestriction->relationId;
 
@@ -2239,16 +2246,44 @@ QueryPushdownSqlTaskList(Query *query, uint64 jobId,
 			return NIL;
 		}
 		prevShardCount = cacheEntry->shardIntervalArrayLength;
-		innerTableOfOuterJoin = false;
+
+		distributedTableIndex = bms_add_member(distributedTableIndex,
+											   relationRestriction->index);
+	}
+
+	/* In the second loop, populate taskRequiredForShardIndex */
+	forboth_ptr(prunedShardList, prunedRelationShardList,
+				relationRestriction, relationRestrictionContext->relationRestrictionList)
+	{
+		Oid relationId = relationRestriction->relationId;
+
+		CitusTableCacheEntry *cacheEntry = GetCitusTableCacheEntry(relationId);
+		if (!HasDistributionKeyCacheEntry(cacheEntry))
+		{
+			continue;
+		}
 
 		/*
-		 * For left outer joins, we need to check if the table is in the inner
-		 * part of the join. If it is, we need to mark this shard and add interval
-		 * constraints to the join.
+		 * For left joins we don't care about the shards pruned for the right hand side.
+		 * If the right hand side would prune to a smaller set we should still send it to
+		 * all tables of the left hand side. However if the right hand side is bigger than
+		 * the left hand side we don't have to send the query to any shard that is not
+		 * matching anything on the left hand side.
+		 *
+		 * Instead we will simply skip any RelationRestriction if it is an OUTER join,
+		 * the table is part of the non-outer side of the join and the outer side has a
+		 * distributed table.
 		 */
-		if (IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(relationRestriction))
+		if (IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(relationRestriction, distributedTableIndex,
+									&outerPartHasDistributedTable))
 		{
 			innerTableOfOuterJoin = true;
+
+			/* Skip this relation only if a relation from the outer part is distributed */
+			if (outerPartHasDistributedTable)
+			{
+				continue;
+			}
 		}
 
 		ShardInterval *shardInterval = NULL;
@@ -2259,15 +2294,6 @@ QueryPushdownSqlTaskList(Query *query, uint64 jobId,
 			taskRequiredForShardIndex =
 				bms_add_member(taskRequiredForShardIndex, shardIndex);
 			minShardOffset = Min(minShardOffset, shardIndex);
-			if (innerTableOfOuterJoin)
-			{
-				/*
-				 * We need to keep track of the inner table of outer join
-				 * shards so that we can process them later.
-				 */
-				innerTableOfOuterJoinSet =
-					bms_add_member(innerTableOfOuterJoinSet, shardIndex);
-			}
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -2285,7 +2311,6 @@ QueryPushdownSqlTaskList(Query *query, uint64 jobId,
 	int shardOffset = minShardOffset - 1;
 	while ((shardOffset = bms_next_member(taskRequiredForShardIndex, shardOffset)) >= 0)
 	{
-		innerTableOfOuterJoin = bms_is_member(shardOffset, innerTableOfOuterJoinSet);
 		Task *subqueryTask = QueryPushdownTaskCreate(query, shardOffset,
 													 relationRestrictionContext,
 													 taskIdIndex,
@@ -2326,9 +2351,12 @@ QueryPushdownSqlTaskList(Query *query, uint64 jobId,
  *   b) on the inner part of said join
  *
  * The function returns true only if both conditions above hold true
+ * and sets the outerPartHasDistributedTable to true if the outer part of the
+ * join contains a distributed table.
  */
 static bool
-IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(RelationRestriction *relationRestriction)
+IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(RelationRestriction *relationRestriction,
+						Bitmapset *distributedTables, bool *outerPartHasDistributedTable)
 {
 	RestrictInfo *joinInfo = NULL;
 	foreach_declared_ptr(joinInfo, relationRestriction->relOptInfo->joininfo)
@@ -2349,6 +2377,8 @@ IsInnerTableOfOuterJoin(RelationRestriction *relationRestriction)
 		if (!isInOuter)
 		{
 			/* this table is joined in the inner part of an outer join */
+			*outerPartHasDistributedTable = bms_overlap(joinInfo->outer_relids,
+														distributedTables);
 			return true;
 		}
 	}