diff --git a/modin/core/storage_formats/pandas/merge.py b/modin/core/storage_formats/pandas/merge.py
index d1e05f113d9..1fe86ae1f56 100644
--- a/modin/core/storage_formats/pandas/merge.py
+++ b/modin/core/storage_formats/pandas/merge.py
@@ -13,15 +13,23 @@
 
 """Contains implementations for Merge/Join."""
 
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
 import pandas
 from pandas.core.dtypes.common import is_list_like
 from pandas.errors import MergeError
 
 from modin.core.dataframe.base.dataframe.utils import join_columns
 from modin.core.dataframe.pandas.metadata import ModinDtypes
+from modin.config import NPartitions, MinPartitionSize
 
 from .utils import merge_partitioning
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from modin.core.storage_formats.pandas.query_compiler import PandasQueryCompiler
+
 
 # TODO: add methods for 'join' here
 class MergeImpl:
@@ -93,7 +101,9 @@ def func(left, right):
         ).reset_index(drop=True)
 
     @classmethod
-    def row_axis_merge(cls, left, right, kwargs):
+    def row_axis_merge(
+        cls, left: PandasQueryCompiler, right: PandasQueryCompiler, kwargs: dict
+    ):
         """
         Execute merge using row-axis implementation.
 
@@ -164,6 +174,14 @@ def map_func(
                 left, right, on, left_on, right_on, kwargs.get("suffixes", ("_x", "_y"))
             )
 
+            # partitioning is too bad, it's more profitable to repartition
+            if (
+                left._modin_frame._partitions.shape[0] < 0.3 * NPartitions.get()
+                # to avoid empty partitions after repartition; can materialize index
+                and len(left._modin_frame) > NPartitions.get() * MinPartitionSize.get()
+            ):
+                left = left.repartition(axis=0)
+
             new_left = left.__constructor__(
                 left._modin_frame.broadcast_apply_full_axis(
                     axis=1,